To Hell and Back
by CommanderPike
Summary: A dramatization of the events of Mass Effect 2 and 3, detailing the shared journey of Shepard and Miranda and their growing relationship.
1. Prologue: The Lazarus Project

What follows is the prologue for a series I've been planning for a while, dramatizing the events of Mass Effect 2 and 3, mainly from the perspective of Miranda Lawson, with an emphasis on her relationship with Commander Shepard. You know from my one shot story, "Keeping a Promise" how their journey ends, but that doesn't make the path there any less significant (Maybe I'll do an extended cut of that story once I get to the end *sarcasm*). Shepard in this story has the Colonist Background, and the War Hero service record. His class specialization is that of a Sentinel. I plan to update this story at least once a week until its completion. Enjoy.

**Prologue – The Lazarus Project**

Subject – Lt. Commander John Shepard

Service Number: 5923-AC-2826

Age: 29

Height: 1.85 m (approx. 6 ft. 1 in.)

Weight: 82 kg (approx. 182 lbs.)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Blue

Born John Mason to Robert and Hannah Mason. Both parents and younger sister, Katherine, were killed in a slaver attack on their home colony of Mindoir in 2170. Changed his last name to Shepard when he enlisted into the Alliance later that same year (underage). Graduated the Systems Alliance N7 Special Forces program (one of the youngest ever to do so) with his Military Specialization Classification listed as Sentinel (a combination of biotics and cyber warfare). Began active service and received several medals for bravery and heroism, culminating in being awarded the Star of Terra (Earth's most prestigious medal) after defending the citizens of Elysium from enemy ground forces during the Skyllian Blitz in 2176. Shepard had been on shore leave at the time. Assigned as executive officer to Captain David Anderson aboard the SSV Normandy. After rescuing Eden Prime from a Geth attack (later determined to be part of campaign of sedition led by the rogue Turian Spectre, Saren Arterius), Shepard was appointed the first human Spectre, and tasked with tracking down Saren. After several missions in the Terminus Systems, Shepard caught up with and confronted Saren in the Citadel Tower during the battle for the Citadel in 2183. His actions during the battle allowed the Alliance Fleet to both save the Destiny Ascension and destroy the Geth flagship, Sovereign. Afterward, he was tasked with rooting out remain Geth resistance, until he was killed in an attack on the Normandy by a ship of unknown origin. His body was never recovered and he is officially listed as MIA, presumed dead.

* * *

Miranda leaned back, having finished reading the Alliance Record's brief on Commander Shepard for the 3rd time. The full profile was scheduled to be sent to her later that day, but she wanted to make sure she had a handle on the basics before going into detail. The first time she had read the line referring to the "Geth Flagship" she had winced. Depressing really, how determined the council was to bury the truth for their own convenience and piece of mind. Sighing, she kneaded her temples with her fingers. She was confident in her abilities but the task before her was monumental. Moments ago she had emerged from a meeting with the Illusive Man, a follow up to their earlier conversation in which he had sought her opinion on Shepard's viability as a Cerberus asset. They had concluded that although it would be a difficult proposition, a man and, more importantly, a symbol like Shepard was invaluable to humanity and therefore Cerberus as well. Their plan for a gradual approach to Shepard had been blown to hell when his ship was, but it appears that they weren't done with him yet.

The Illusive Man was never one to let the increased difficulty of an operation deter him from having it carried out, and Shepard's death seemed to him to be only another obstacle to his eventual recruitment. Bringing him back to life, however impossible that might seem, was a moot point for the moment, as the man himself - or more accurately, his body - was missing. Expeditionary teams searching for the Normandy's crash site had been unable to locate the Commander's remains. Recent chatter on Omega, however, suggested that members of the Blue Suns had possession of the late John Shepard, and had plans to hand his body over to the Shadow Broker. Miranda had no intention of letting that happen, but Cerberus had limited influence on Omega. She would need to enlist the assistance of a certain Asari who had served with Shepard during his hunt for Saren, and was currently searching for his body, same as her; Dr. Liara T'soni.

* * *

Weeks later, thanks to the help of the commander's erstwhile Asari ally, his body lay before Miranda on their specially prepared operating table. She had spent the intermediary time recruiting a crack team, both from within Cerberus' ranks and without. Even with all the specialists and medical professionals she had assembled, and the Illusive Man's personal assurance that his every resource would be at their disposal, she was daunted by what needed to be done. The longest a human had ever been clinically dead outside of a hospital and been subsequently revived was 34 hours, and that was a skier who had been frozen in an avalanche in the Alps, and found and revived over a day later. Shepard had been subjected to sub-zero temperatures for the majority of his death and spent the rest of it in a stasis pod, but still, he was beyond clinical death. The man before her was dead in the most absolute definition of the world. The only way of bringing him back, and not some clone or copy, was to rebuild him piece by piece.

She took a breath and began to assess the damage, mentally running scenarios for possible solutions to each problem as she focused on it. His brain was obviously the main concern. His helmet had kept his head mostly intact, but there were still a multitude of problems. After death, the human brain is the fastest part to decay. As it is deprived of oxygen, delicate and irreplaceable cells and neural pathways begin to die. This process can be slowed by sub-zero temperatures, and even more so by modern advances in stasis technology, but nothing can stop it altogether. Due to the amount of time since his death, significant portions would have to be rebuilt with great care if they wanted to maintain their original functionality. Miranda made a note of what tasks she would first be assigning their two resident Neurologists.

His body was of less concern, but just as badly damaged. Most of his bones had sustained at least minor fractures, and many had been nearly disintegrated by impact. Decay was less of a worry than with his brain, but skin cells had already begun to lose their integrity (partially due to crystallization of glucose in his bloodstream from being frozen, which resulted in damage to the cell walls), and on top of significant trauma this meant that much of his dermal architecture would need to be replaced. Any muscles and tendons that hadn't been damaged by his orbital drop had, and would continue to suffer the effects of atrophy. She had already considered this, and had plans to both regrow current muscle and marrow that had been lost, and supplement with cybernetic augmentations. This would both ensure stability for the commander's entire body during recovery, and make him stronger and more durable upon his eventual revival. Almost all of his original organs would need to be replaced with cloned duplicates, but she was confident that this wouldn't affect Shepard's mind. A few glands that regulate hormones, like the pituitary, adrenal, and thyroid glands would need to be rebuilt to exact specifications to ensure that Shepard's mood and emotions were unaffected, but that didn't worry her unduly.

After a few hours of examination and consideration, she had established a plan for his revival, and an outline detailing the responsibilities of each member of her hand built team, along with her own. She would present this to the rest of the team the next morning after getting it approved by the Illusive Man. Looking away from the screens she had been assessing to the remains of the man lying on the table in the center of the room, she was struck by the fact that despite all that she knew of the man, from his military record, to his high school report card, to his cellular structure, she had no idea what to expect if- _when, when_ she mentally corrected herself, they finally revived him. The image she had formed of the Shepard she would be rebuilding in her head over the last few weeks was hollow. Resolving to rectify that before the project was completed, she saved and sent off her reports, turned off all non-essential machinery, and retired to her quarters to prepare for the work to come.

* * *

The days turned into weeks, and weeks into months as Shepard's reconstruction progressed. Initial results showed promise. Preliminary regrowth of basic tissues was going well, and the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems had been almost completely restored. They were growing cloned organs separately, with the goal being to anticipate the amount of time it would take to regrow each (every organ is different in this regard), and have it ready as soon as Shepard's body was made ready to receive it. Even with artificially accelerated growth, the fastest of these would take at least a month. Their current working plan, proposed by Miranda, was to preserve the brain as best they could as they restored his body. Once they had that repaired and ready to sustain his brain on its own, they could reconstruct the neural pathways that made up Shepard; his memories, his training, his personality. As an alliance soldier, Shepard had been required to complete physicals 4 times a year, and once a year his tests included extremely thorough neurological testing. Cerberus had "acquired" Shepard's most recent tests, performed only a month after the attack on the citadel. Their plan was to use these scans as a guide to rebuild any parts of his cerebral cortex that had been damaged during his time spent as a corpse.

As the Lazarus Project progressed, Miranda used what could be loosely referred to as her spare time to try to fill in the gaps in her knowledge of Shepard. The fact remained that when he awoke (and it was looking more likely every day that they would succeed in making this happen), Shepard would be among what his most recent experiences would tell him are enemies. The more Miranda read of the Commander's exploits, the more concerned she was about what would happen when he woke up. It was entirely possible they would be able to bring Shepard around to their side in time, but it was unlikely they would be able restrain him if his initial reaction was violent. At the outset of the program, Miranda had proposed a solution to the Illusive Man, but had been shot down.

"No." The Illusive Man sat in his chair on the other end of the holo-call, as infuriatingly implacable as ever.

"Respectfully, sir, Shepard has personally wiped out four Cerberus bases in the past. If we don't have a means to control him-" Miranda was interrupted before she could finish.

"I understand your position, but I'm afraid I think it's worth the risk. Shepard has gotten to where he is because of _who_ he is. The slightest change could ruin him. We need the man who saved a galaxy that didn't believe in him, not a chained attack dog. My decision is final, Miranda. Find a way to make it work."

She knew getting the Illusive Man to refute an earlier decision was all but futile, so she had to content herself with filling in the blanks, and learning exactly who and what to expect at the end of the project. Since the best source of information was still mostly dead on her table, she would have to rely on secondary sources.

* * *

_Excerpt from the debriefing of Lieutenant Gregory Adams, Chief Engineer SSV Normandy_

Lt. Adams: After we'd cleared the Window System, having absconded with the Normandy, Commander Shepard called all crew members into the CIC.

Alliance Archivist: To brief you on the upcoming mission?

LA: No. Well, yes, but before that he had something to say to the entire crew.

AA: What did he say?

LA: That he wouldn't order any member of the crew to come with him. He said that we were passing by a human colony on the way to the Mu Relay, and that any who were uncomfortable with disobeying a council directive would be dropped off there. Needless to say none of us took that option.

AA: You were all aware that what you were doing could be considered treason if you were wrong?

LA: He made sure we understood both what we were doing and the consequences. The fact is, with Shepard in command, not a single man or woman on that ship cared.

* * *

_Communication between Admiral Steven Hackett and Commander Shepard following a mission dealing with Major Kyle, an ex-alliance soldier suffering from PTSD who had started a cult for biotics._

Admiral Hackett: My reports say Major Kyle remanded himself into our custody without incident. I don't know how you did it Commander, to be honest I was expecting the situation to end in a blood bath. Good work.

Commander Shepard: Thank you sir, but I was just doing my job.

AH: I wish every soldier had your definition of "Just doing your job." Keep up the good work Commander. Hackett out.

* * *

Over the course of several weeks, Miranda absorbed more and more audio logs, news footage, mission briefings, security tapes, interviews, and first-hand accounts. A coherent profile was finally starting to assemble itself. She now felt her earlier fears of a murderous rampage upon awakening were unfounded. Shepard was by no means soft, but he never took the easy way out. She felt confident he would at least ascertain her name and purpose before gunning her down. Even then, unless she was an immediate threat to him, it was unlikely he would resort to violence. Numerous scenarios from his long and varied career had proven that despite his extensive array of deadly skills, using them was the last option he would employ. That wasn't the only thing she had learned in her investigation into the Spectre, but it was her most immediate concern, and the rest were trivialities she could scarce afford time contemplating at this critical stage of the operation. For they were about to begin work restoring Shepard's mind.

* * *

_Miranda Lawson's Personal Log (Encrypted)_

I normally don't indulge in personal journals, but the tension of this project is even getting to me, and I fear without an unobserved way to vent, my performance might suffer, and that is something we cannot afford at this juncture. Despite everything we've accomplished so far, the success of this project is wholly dependent on this next phase. I feel a layman could not even comprehend the magnitude of what needs to be done. The brain is the most complex and delicate part of a human being. Despite nonsense about feeling something in your heart or gut, or knowing something in your bones, everything that makes us who we are is contained in three pounds of soft tissue sloshing around inside your skull. Every neuron contained within is unique and irreplaceable. The structure is equal parts based on genetics, experience, and a million variables that take place during the course of one's life. No two human brains are identical, and rebuilding one as damaged as Shepard's has never been attempted before. We cannot introduce anything new into the brain. A cloned brain would just be an empty shell, what Shepard was at the moment of his birth (although variables during growth mean that even that's not certain). Even if we could copy the structure of his current brain onto a replacement, that wouldn't be Shepard. Compare coping a file from one computer to another. Nothing physically moves, the data is simply replicated on a new hard drive. The original still exists. All we would have done was created someone who thinks they are Shepard. The philosophical connotations are mind boggling, but fortunately our mission directive has made things simple: bring back Shepard. And I _will_ find a way.

* * *

Together with the two Neurologists she had selected for the project, Miranda worked tirelessly over the next few months painstakingly restoring the damaged portions of Shepard's mind. Luckily for the team, the section that had sustained the most damage was the Medulla Oblongata, which controls the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, along with other autonomic and involuntary functions. This was fortunate because between different people, this was the section of the brain most likely to be similar, and as such was the easiest to restore. Other damaged sections, while not suffering from nearly as severe damage were much more difficult. They had to carefully restore, neuron by neuron, pathway by pathway, entire sections of his motor and cerebral cortex to exactly match scans taken from alliance databases. Miranda thanked whatever gods might be watching that the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and hippocampus - the areas of the brain most responsible for the formation and storage of memories – were mostly intact. Rebuilding them could very well have been impossible. Despite more than 250 years of research into the brain, memory was still one of the most difficult mental structures to understand.

As they progressed, Miranda found herself more and more coming into conflict with one of the other two specialists still working consistently on Shepard, Dr. Wilson. He was always eager to rush ahead, even when a particular task required precision. More than once, his recklessness had nearly cost them weeks of work. He constantly questioned her every move, sure (quite wrongly) that he knew better. She had originally chosen Wilson for the team because of a combination of his history working in experimental medicine, and his substantial debts. The latter had made him easy to recruit, but in retrospect, she suspected she should have read more into what that said about his character. He seemed to fail to understand that this was more than just an experiment. All it would take was one costly mistake to end the entire project, and yet he continued to push. On a few occasions she had wondered what his hurry was, but always ended up attributing his rush to his rash nature. His current proposition had her genuinely terrified. Not only because of the risk it posed to Shepard (and therefore the project) but because the Illusive Man had already given his consent, in spite of her protests.

Wilson had decided (and apparently the Illusive Man agreed) that an assessment and testing of Shepard's neural integrity was in order, and had proposed a plan involving utilizing electric impulses throughout Shepard's brain that would allow them to stimulate different areas and observe the results to assess functionality. The problem was that a multitude of complications (ranging from minor to fatal) could easily arise, and given that they projected Shepard should be conscious – properly – within the next two or three weeks, Miranda questioned the necessity of such a risk. Wilson had argued that they should know about any problems before Shepard woke up, so they could correct them with greater ease. Confident in their results, Miranda felt this was unnecessary, but her objections had been overridden by the Illusive Man, and as such, the testing would proceed.

* * *

His eyes glued to the screen, and attempting to ignore Miranda's icy glare boring into the back of his skull, Wilson began his dictation of the test, "Beginning electrical stimulation to the Basal Ganglia."

A beep from the machine and a subdued jolt from the electrode mounted on Shepard's head later, the marine's left leg twitched slightly.

"Motor control between brain and extremities seems to be functioning." He sent a few more pulses through the commander's brain, alternating between different limbs, and making auditory note of the results. Miranda had moved from her position against the wall and was now alternating between observing Shepard and eyeing the various machines that were monitoring him.

"Bringing up cerebral imaging," Wilson noted, changing the view on his screens to several cross sections of Shepard's head, using various filters. "Stimulating the Amygdala. We should observe the signs of a reaction to something exciting or unexpected." After a few moments of observation Wilson nodded, "Looks pretty good. Let's try anger." Again, the results seemed satisfactory, "One more before we move on, testing the fear response." This time, the screens seemed much more lively "Very good response to that."

"What was that?" Miranda sounded concerned, so Wilson glanced at the screens monitoring Shepard's vitals.

"Just an adrenal response. It's to be expected, given what we stimulated. We'll give it a few minutes to dissipate, then continue."

"No, that." He noticed she was looking not at the screens, but at Shepard. "He just blinked."

"What? We have him sedated, he can't have blinked." Panicking slightly Wilson moved back over to the screens showing neurological function. Behind him he heard Shepard stir on the bed. "He's reacting to outside stimuli, showing an awareness of his surroundings. My god, Miranda, I think he's waking up!"

Miranda moved swiftly across the room to stand next to Shepard, whose eyes were half open, and whose head was starting to rise slightly. "Dammit Wilson he's not ready, give him the emergency sedative." She turned to Shepard, and grabbed his arm which was lifting to push himself upwards, gently bringing it back down to his side.

"Shepard don't try to move, just lie still; try to relax." She did her best to make her expression reassuring in spite of the dread and anxiety that were threatening to consume her.

Wilson administered the sedative, but the noises of the monitors made it clear that this wasn't enough. "Heart rate's still climbing, brain activity is off the charts." He glanced at another screen. "Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working" Shepard was breathing heavily, and his face was contorted in pain.

"Another dose, now," Miranda commanded. Wilson complied, for once, and yet more sedative flooded the commander's system. A few tense seconds crawled slowly by seeming to last a lifetime.

Finally, Wilson reported, "Heart rate dropping, stats falling into normal range. That was too close, we almost lost hi-" Miranda cut him off.

"I told you your estimates were off, run the numbers again." Miranda looked down at Shepard, and for a moment before he returned to unconsciousness, their eyes met. What she saw there surprised her. It wasn't fear or confusion, as one might expect, it was fire. A fiery determination that belied his current state and helpless position, and despite the fact that he was falling back into the deep sleep in which he had spent so much of the last two years, that one look into his eyes had made him seem more alive than anything else Miranda had learned of him so far.

Wilson had been right about one thing: that was much too damn close. She could not - _would not_ –allow him to compromise what she had devoted the last two years of her life to accomplishing. From now on, she would review every last bloody thing he did before signing off on it, and she felt confident the Illusive man would no longer doubt her judgment.

It was this decision that would save Shepard's life.

* * *

**Author Notes:**

That concludes the prologue to my series. You can expect a new installment every week or so. I promise that future chapters will have less technical babble, but I have to admit that I was geeking out slightly over the prospect of explaining just how bloody difficult the Lazarus project would actually be, especially given my lifelong fascination with the complexities of the brain. Anyway, I also planted the seeds for multiple details of Shepard's background that I plan to expand upon later. Miranda's background will also be explored, but I wanted the first chapter to be about Shepard, so that will come later. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and will return for future instalments. Cheers.


	2. Chapter 1: Lazarus Station

As promised this chapter contains a lot less techno-babble (much to my chagrin ) and more action and characterization. Enjoy.

**Chapter 1: Lazarus Station**

Alarms were blaring throughout the facility. Screams, gunfire and the occasional explosion echoed throughout the halls and jarred Miranda, barricaded in her office. Just over a week ago, Wilson's hastiness nearly cost Shepard his life, and Miranda had decided that despite the near doubling of her workload she would be personally reviewing his every file to ensure there were no more screw ups. It had taken several days to sort through all the archived notes in Wilson's system for her to get current on his logs. Whilst trawling through dozens of emails and personal logs, she had found a series of seemingly meaningless emails to a cousin. Concerned Wilson may have (intentionally or not) leaked potentially compromising Intel, she examined these correspondences more closely.

Investigation of the cousin in question hit a dead end. She could find no listed address, occupation, or even a photo, just a masked extranet ID. Stymied, she scrutinized the messages themselves, and after a night of tests run with every program she could think of, she uncovered an underlying encryption. This piqued both her interest and suspicion, and following a lengthy decoding session, requiring surprisingly advance code breaking techniques (where had Wilson gotten an encryption like that?), she finally unlocked the messages hidden in the emails.

* * *

_Transcripts of Messages:_

(Dated nearly a year ago)

The shadow broker has received your proposition, and I've been instructed to inform you of his approval. What sort of timeframe can we expect for Shepard's delivery?

(Response from Wilson)

As I mentioned, possibly more valuable than Shepard himself is the data we'll be gathering during his reconstruction. I'll be waiting until the last possible moment to arrange the transfer. Until then, refrain from communications and await my reply.

(Dated just over two weeks ago - From Wilson)

The project is for all intents and purposes complete. I'm ready to arrange extraction for both myself and Shepard. Does the broker have his plan in place?

(Response from the broker's agent)

We have a plan, but we need a guarantee of the project's success before we execute. Can you perform an assessment?

(Response from Wilson)

I'll push through a neurological evaluation. Results to follow.

(Dated 6 days ago- From Wilson)

Tests were successful, aside from a slight… oversight. No complications arose, fortunately.

(Response from the broker's agent)

We'll have your extraction ready in exactly one week. Upon our arrival, seal yourself in Shepard's room, and we'll gas the facility. Once the rest of the personnel are dead, we'll take possession of Shepard and the data. Your payment will follow.

(Response from Wilson)

Understood, I'll be ready.

* * *

Miranda had seen more than enough. Their plan was scheduled for tomorrow; she needed to lock the facility down and deal with Wilson. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that alarms started to blare all over the station. _Dammit! Wilson must have had a detection protocol hidden in his terminal! I should have checked… What the hell was he doing_? Bringing up security cameras on her monitors, she witnessed Wilson's contingency plan in action. He had activated the security mechs all over the station, and burned out their friend/foe identification systems. They were going hostile all over the facility! Medical personal, scientists, and staff all across the base were being hunted down. A few seconds of analyzing the situation told her what she had already concluded the moment the alarms had gone off. She had no other options. She had to wake Shepard up.

Bringing up the controls for the machines monitoring Shepard with her project director override, and trying to ignore the sounds coming from outside her own door, she locked Shepard's. She then began switching off the machines keeping Shepard sedated. Scars on his face hadn't fully healed yet, but in theory he should be functional. She could only hope he would be lucid enough to make his way out of the facility on his own, without getting gunned down.

After a few moments of apprehension, Shepard began to stir.

"Wake up Commander." Shepard's eyes were open but he wasn't moving. "Shepard do you hear me? Get out of that bed now; this facility is under attack!" That got his attention, or perhaps it was the explosion that had rocked his room a moment before. He started to sit up, but paused and grasped at his face, obviously in pain. "Shepard, your scars aren't healed but I need you to get moving." He sat up fully and scanned the room for a weapon, his alliance training taking over. "There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room, hurry!" She saw mechs closing in on his location, most of the other staff were already dead across the station. They would be coming for her next.

Shepard rolled off his bed, and after a moment stumbling to find his balance he grabbed the pistol from the security locker on the wall. For the first time, Shepard spoke, "This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip." Straight to business. That was a good sign. "It's a med bay, we'll get you a clip from-" Miranda noticed something out the corner of her eye on the monitors, "Dammit, those canisters by the door are going to blow, get behind cover, now!" Shepard slid behind a counter just before the tanks blew, debris showering over the rest of the room.

As he moved to exit the room, she tried to fill him in on the situation, "Shepard, we need to get you out of here, someone is hacking mechs trying to kill you." _And me,_ she added mentally hearing the sound of mechs moving down the hallway outside her office. _I need to get him out so I can move._ She noticed a security mech about to fire on Shepard.

"Look out!" but Shepard was already way ahead of her. The mech stuttered and shorted out, then exploded. She recognized overload tech; she often used the same technique herself. He had certainly adapted to his new omni-tool rather quickly. Two shots from his pistol took out the two mechs that had been descending the staircase to join their fallen compatriot. He was recovering much faster than she had anticipated. "Keep moving, we need to get you to the shuttle."

Shepard complied, continuing to cut through the mechs in his path. Despite his obvious skill, his movement was conservative, and he never took undue risks, remaining in cover whenever possible, and utilizing both tech attacks and his biotics to disable the mechs, conserving his ammo whenever he could. She worried that this might be a result of him being shaken from the shock of waking up after all this time, but there was no chance to think about that now.

Reaching one of the rooms they had used for planning and logistics, Shepard stopped and approached one of the consoles. _What was he doing?_ After a moment of typing away at the haptic interface, he found and copied a schematic of the station layout to his omni-tool. _Very good thinking._ Surprisingly though, he didn't immediately move on. Instead he found and played a log from the same terminal. She heard her own voice over the speakers. It was a routine progress update she had recorded midway through the project. She couldn't afford him sitting around, whatever his reasons might be, "Don't waste time, the mechs won't be distracted for long." She saw two of the remaining project personnel being gunned down by an YSMIR mech on one of her monitors, and wondered how many were left.

Shepard continued on through the station, stopping at one point to grab a grenade launcher from a dead security officer. In spite of her protests, he paused to examine the data at two more terminals on his way, though he didn't linger long. "Shepard you're doing great, you're almost to the shuttles." Gunfire peppered the door to her office. It wouldn't hold long. "Are you reading me? I've got mechs closing in on my position, you'll have to make it the rest of the way on your own. I'll meet you there." She wasn't sure if that last message had gone through, but she had problems of her own to deal with. With the mechs moments away from breaking in, she fired up her barrier and checked her pistol, taking a defensive posture next to the door. Time to get off this station.

* * *

Jacob wasn't having a good day. His morning workout routine had been rudely interrupted by the chaos of the attack, and he was now pinned down fighting off the very mechs he was supposed to be commanding as the ranking security officer on the station. What the hell had happened? Was it just a malfunction, or was it some kind of attack? The latter seemed much more likely from where he was sitting, but he had been unable to raise Miranda on his communicator, or anyone for that matter. Currently, he was squatting behind the railing on a platform across a chasm from several mechs. He had been trying to get to Shepard, as he was sure Miranda would be unwilling to abandon the man she had spent so much time rebuilding. Unfortunately, he'd been caught off guard by a squad of mechs, who had blown out the door controls on his side. He had no choice but to double back, but not before dealing with the mechs who had him stuck here.

Just as he was preparing to do so, the door he had intended to enter was opened from the other side, and none other than Shepard himself came through the door, rolling into cover next to Jacob. "Shepard? I thought you were still out!" A few taps on his omni-tool sealed the door he had come through behind him, then he turned his attention to Jacob. "No going back that way, a squad of mechs were closing in behind me. Are you with Miranda?"

_Damn. _For someone who had spent the last two years pretty much dead, Shepard seemed to be taking their current situation in stride. "Sorry, I forgot, this all new to you. I'm Jacob Taylor, I've been stationed here for-"

"Hostiles detected," droned a mechanical voice from across the platform. More damn mechs. Jacob leaned out and took the mech's head off with a well-placed shot before turning back to Shepard. "Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I'll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."

Shepard looked in the mood to question Jacob further, but after a moment he conceded, "All right, this is your station, I'll follow you." More mechs were coming through the door across the chasm between their two platforms.

"First things first, we've got to deal with these mechs. We're low on thermal clips, but I'm a biotic. Just give the word when you want me to hit them with the good stuff." Shepard popped his head out of cover momentarily, taking in the 3 mechs remaining across the platform and their positioning. He motioned to Jacob, "Lift the center mech now." Assuming the commander had a plan, Jacob did so, and a blue glow surrounded his target as it began to levitate. An instant later, Shepard followed his attack up with what Jacob recognized as a warp field. When it hit the mech he had lifted, the resulting biotic explosion knocked down the other two mechs. After a few seconds of tapping on his omni-tool, and just as the mechs were beginning to get back up, one of the remaining two mechs sparked, then exploded, taking off one of the arms of the other mech. Jacob quickly stood and put the last hostile down with a few shots from his predator, accompanied by: "Nice!"

Shepard took a moment to sync his omni-tool with the door those mech had come through, and a moment later had it sealed. Jacob holstered his sidearm and asked, "Ready to get the hell off this station?"

"Before we go anywhere, I want some answers." It seems Shepard meant to pursue his early inclination to question Jacob. _Fair enough,_ Jacob thought, _if I'd just woken from a two year dirt nap, I'd want to know what the hell was going on too._ "Sure, what do you want to know?"

"What's your job here?" _Starting with the basics, I guess._ "Depends on who you ask," Jacob replied, "Technically, I'm Miranda's top lieutenant, but I'm just a soldier. I served five years in the alliance before this." Shepard took notice of that. "Now I'm in charge of the station's security." Considering what they'd just been fighting, Jacob felt a pang of embarrassment. "Usually a lot more dull then this. Normally I don't fire my weapon unless it's target practice." Shepard nodded, as if in conciliation.

"When I first woke up, someone named Miranda was talking to me over the radio. We lost contact just before I ran into you."

"Miranda Lawson is the station's ranking officer. She led the Lazarus team. It was her job to bring you back, no matter what. I'd guessed she might try to save you. She's not about to give up on you now." Jacob felt a sinking feeling as he processed the second half of what Shepard had said. "You said you lost contact, could you tell what was happening?" He tried to keep the concern in his voice to a minimum.

Shepard seemed to have picked up on it anyway, "There was some gunfire right before I lost her. Sorry, that's all I know."

"She knows how to take care of herself," Jacob wondered if he was trying to reassure Shepard or himself, "but I hope she's ok," he added more quietly.

Perhaps sensing he want to move on, Shepard changed the subject, "What do you know about this attack on the station, who's behind it, what they're after?"

Jacob seized on the topic, "Damned if I know, I was just finishing my morning routine when: bam. Bunch of explosions. Next thing I know every damn mech in the place starts shooting, at us." He continued, voicing the suspicion that had been nagging at him the whole time he'd been fighting off the mechs, "I'm guessing it had to be an inside job, you'd need top security access to hack all the mechs."

From the look on his face, it seemed like something was dawning on Shepard, but was quickly hidden when he asked, "The last thing I remember is the Normandy being attacked. Did anyone else make it out?"

"A little more than half the crew survived. A lot of the service men and women from the lower decks didn't make it out. Navigator Pressley was killed by an explosion, along with a few other officers on the bridge." Shepard clearly remembered Pressley. Jacob hastily delivered the good news, "But the rest of the crew made into the escape pods, including all the non-alliance crew members. They all made it out alive."

Pressing for more information, Shepard asked, "Do you know what any of them are doing now?"

_Damn._ Jacob did not want to be the one to break to Shepard just how long he'd been out. He did his best to answer delicately, "I don't know Commander, it's been… a while. They've moved on, left the alliance, could be anywhere." Shepard clearly wasn't satisfied with that answer, but it would have to do for now. The commander brought up a schematic of the station on his omni-tool. _Wonder where he got that._ "What's the quickest way to the shuttles?"

Jacob looked at the map along with Shepard, "Depends on where the mechs are thickest, it's probably best if we-"

"Check, check, is anyone on this frequency?" Jacob's communicator buzzed. Since he hadn't been able to get a hold of anyone during the attack, he'd almost forgotten about it. "Is anybody still alive out there?" That sounded like Wilson. He hadn't interacted with Wilson much, being security on the station and not involved with the actual project, but he knew Miranda didn't like him. He usually respected Miranda's judgment, but right now all that mattered was getting off this station alive.

"Wilson, this is Jacob, I'm here with Commander Shepard. We just took out a wave of mechs over in D-Wing." There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"Shepard's alive? How the hell… never mind, you need to get him out of there." Jacob could have sworn Shepard raised an eyebrow at that, but to be fair, they were all strangers to him. "Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room." Finally some direction.

"Roger that Wilson, stay on this frequency." Jacob was about to ask the commander to follow him, but Shepard beat him to the punch, "I remember a Wilson checking on me the first time I woke up."

"Yep, that's him. Chief neurologist on the project, reports directly to Miranda." Jacob was eager to get moving. "Come on, service tunnels are this way." Shepard simply nodded and drew his pistol, indicating with it that he'd take point. Together they proceeded on through the station.

* * *

Getting out of her office had been much more difficult than Miranda had anticipated. She'd been prepared to deal with the LOKI mechs, but just after she took them out, the YSMIR mech she had seen on her monitor just a few minutes before rounded the corner at the end of the hallway. If she hadn't been in such a confined space (and hadn't spent the entirety of the last night awake chasing down the leads that had led to this attack) she might have tried taking it on. In her current state, and with time against her, she had decided the best course of action was to bypass the mech. She had waited until it was adjacent to an explosive canister, then overloaded it, causing it to rupture and explode. Shepard wasn't the only one who knew that trick.

The explosion disabled the mech's missile launcher temporarily, and her barrier held up long enough against its machine gun for her to sprint to the door in the middle of the hallway, slip through, and seal it behind her. The heavy mech would be able to break through of course, but she had no plans to stick around.

The rest of the journey to the shuttles was much less eventful. It seemed the majority of the mechs were occupied elsewhere in the station. As she progressed, she could hear gunfire in other parts of the facility, which meant at the very least Shepard was alive. Most likely Wilson was still alive as well, somewhere, and possibly Jac- _Dammit._ In her haste to ensure Shepard's survival, she had completely forgotten to check on Jacob's status. Very uncharacteristic of her. This wasn't the first oversight she'd made concerning Jacob. Considering what she had put him through, he deserved better than a last minute remembrance, but it was too late to worry about it now. She could only hope that he would have the sense to stay alive and make it to the shuttle bay.

Her impeccable memory led her swiftly to her destination. When she arrived, she found no one else had yet made it. Not hearing gunfire anymore, she was just about to run a scan of the station to see if anyone else was alive when the door to the docking bay slid open.

"Come on, through here. We're almost at the… Miranda! But you were-"

She didn't even give the traitorous bastard a chance to finish his surprised exclamation; a single bullet from the gun that had flown effortlessly into her hand put the duplicitous son of a bitch out of her misery.

"Dead?"

_That was far too satisfying._ She looked down at the corpse of her former colleague, then turned to inspect his two companions. One was Jacob, who was clearly in shock. He'd never been able to deal with some of life's cold hard realities, preferring to put his stock in a black and white view of the universe. Still she was glad he was alive. His death was not something she wanted on her shoulders.

Next to him was Shepard. She took note of the stance he had assume the moment she'd drawn her pistol: gun trained on her, body turned sideways marginally to minimize the target, legs bent slightly, ready to move. Good to see that despite his reputation as a negotiator, he wasn't one to trust blindly. His eyes were also firmly locked on her own, not exploring her provocative attire as most men did on their first meeting. Also a good sign. Her appraisal of the commander was interrupted by Jacob.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Miranda had to resist sighing. Despite being a good man and a good soldier, Jacob was often tiresomely naive. "My job; Wilson betrayed us all."

Shepard drank this in, and after a moment's contemplation apparently accepted it; he lowered his pistol, "I had a feeling he was just waiting to shoot me in the back." She noticed he didn't go so far as to holster his sidearm.

"Good instincts, most people are far too trusting to ever see that coming." On reflection, she realized that might have seemed overly cruel to Jacob, but he seemed not to have noticed the criticism, understandably eager to get off the station.

"So what now?"

"We get onto a shuttle and head to another facility. My boss wants to speak with you." She hadn't contacted the Illusive Man yet, but she was sure that by now he was at least aware of what had happened. She was doubly sure that he would want a word with the recently revived Shepard.

"You mean the Illusive Man?" _Damn it, Jacob._ "I know you work for Cerberus."

"Ah Jacob, I should have known your conscience would get the better of you." She could have been harsher, but under the circumstances she felt alienating her only definite ally would be a mistake.

"Lying to the commander isn't the way to get him to join our cause." She wouldn't tell him, but perhaps as a fellow soldier, he did have a better position for communicating with Shepard. Still, she didn't like things being out of her hands. Better to take control now than let Jacob divulge the entirety of Cerberus' doctrine to the commander.

"All right, since we're getting everything out in the open, is there anything else you want to ask before we go, commander?" Miranda hoped using Shepard's title would help him feel more comfortable, and possibly even holster that pistol he still held in his hand.

"Where are we going?" A reasonable question.

"Another Cerberus facility, the Illusive Man is waiting for us there." Shepard looked reluctant.

"I'm not sure I trust you." Well, at least he was honest. In his position, she would probably feel the same way. Even so, it didn't change the obvious.

"This is the only shuttle off this station. If you want to stay and rot with the mechs, be my guest." Frowning, Shepard conceded the point. He still wasn't done though.

"What about the rest of the people on the station?" Perhaps she had ruled out the possibility of him being a hopeless idealist prematurely.

"This is the evac area, if they're not here now, they're not coming." To her chagrin, Shepard insisted on pressing the issue.

"We can't leave without knowing for sure, we need to go back and look." He brought up his omni-tool, most likely intending to scan the station. Miranda did her level best to keep the exasperation out of her voice.

"Don't you get it, the only one worth saving is you; everyone else is expendable." To her surprise, Jacob came to her defense.

"She's right, we all knew the risks when we signed up. Without you, there's no point to any of this." At least he knew his priorities. Shepard evidently sense he was outnumbered, because he dropped the subject, but not before finishing a scan of the base. It turned out his concern was futile, as the scan turned up no life signs other than the three of them. As he was closing the screen Miranda saw an opening to get him moving.

"Ready to go?"

"All right. I've had enough of this station to last a lifetime." Miranda couldn't resist the setup.

"Or two, in your case." She could have sworn she saw the corner of his mouth twitch, but the fact that he finally holstered his pistol was a consolation. "Come on, the Illusive Man will be waiting."

* * *

The three of them entered the one working shuttle, the other having been damaged during the attack at some point. Jacob and Shepard took seats in the passenger compartment, while Miranda piloted them out. She attempted to get a comm line open to the Illusive Man, but couldn't get a stable connection, so she contented herself with a message.

_Shepard has been retrieved. Will attempt to evaluate before arrival. Seems to be functional, but further tests and observation will be needed to confirm._

After having cleared the station, Miranda set the shuttle's autopilot to ferry them the rest of the distance to their ancillary headquarters, which was their current destination. Once their course was locked in, she moved back into the passenger quarters and sat down opposite Shepard. He was staring out the viewport on the side of the shuttle at the emptiness of space. She let him have a minute, then interrupted his reverie.

"Before you meet with the Illusive Man, we need to ask a few questions to evaluate your condition."

Before Shepard could reply, Jacob jumped to his defense, "Come on Miranda, more tests? Shepard took down those mechs without any trouble; that has to be good enough." As impressive as his combat skills were, there was more to a person than how well they could shoot things. Trying to explain this to Jacob was probably a losing prospect, so she tried another tactic.

"It's been two years since the attack. The Illusive Man needs to know that Shepard's personality and memories are intact. Ask the questions." Jacob might disagree, but he wouldn't go against the Illusive Man. At this point Shepard interjected.

"Did you say two years? I've been gone that long?" Oh. Miranda hadn't considered the fact that Shepard might not be aware of the timeline. She had assumed he had picked up the date from one of the terminals he had checked, or that Jacob had told him. Maybe he had, and just hadn't processed it until now. Either way, his veneer of composure that had stood strong until now had developed some cracks. Fortunately Jacob took over for her.

"Two years and twelve days, and you were on an operating table for most of it." Shepard didn't look like that was much comfort, but the trip to the other station wasn't long, and Miranda wasn't about to let Shepard get to the Illusive Man before she was satisfied with his condition. He would just have to come to terms with this life changing revelation later.

"The sooner we start, the sooner we can be done. Start with personal history." After a slightly reproachful look, Jacob complied.

"Okay. Records show you grew up on Mindoir, but lost your family during an attack by slavers on the colony. You enlisted and won a medal fighting Batarians during the Skyllian Blitz." The look on Shepard's face made it clear that he didn't appreciate segments from his life being read as if from an obituary. He apparently felt the need to clarify.

"A lot of lives depended on me holding that position. I did what I had to." A line that sounded like something out of a TV interview, one of the canned responses soldier are trained to dish out on cue. It was almost as though Shepard didn't want to discuss intimate details from his life with two members of a supposed terrorist organization that he had just met. Who would have guessed?

"However you want to put it, it was damned impressive. I had friends who were there." Jacob turned to Miranda with a nauseatingly self-satisfied look on his face, "Satisfied Miranda?" She was not.

"Almost, let's try something more recent. Virmire, where you destroyed Saren's cloning facility, you had leave one your squad behind to die in the blast." She saw Shepard visibly stiffen at the mention of Virmire. Obviously it was still a fresh wound for him. Jacob picked up where she left off.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was killed in action. It was your call. Why did you leave her behind?"

"I left a friend to die that day, and I didn't do it casually. But I had to make a choice. I made the best call I could at the time, to complete the mission and save as many people as humanly possible. Ash gave her life for the rest of the team. Without her I couldn't have stopped Saren. She died a hero." That sounded less rehearsed; there was definite conviction behind his words.

"I understand commander, and I wasn't judging your decision," Jacob put in. "Everyone in Cerberus knows that cloning facility had to be destroyed." No question. An army of krogan set loose on the galaxy? That was the stuff nightmares are made of. Miranda decided to press on while Shepard was in a divulging mood.

"Shepard, think back to the citadel, after the alliance saved the Destiny Ascension and you killed Saren, what happened next?" Obligingly, Shepard thought back.

"Humanity was offered a spot on the Council. I recommended Captain Anderson for the position."

"Yes, Captain Anderson is now Councilor Anderson. Though from what I hear, he preferred life in the military." Considering the sycophantic cesspool that was politics on the citadel, Miranda could hardly blame him. Jacob apparently felt the need to weigh in.

"Still, good to know that the human councilor isn't going to put politics ahead of defense." Indeed.

"You're memory seems solid, there are other tests we really should run…" Predictably, Jacob cut her off.

"Come on, Miranda. Enough with the quizzes. The memories are there, and I can vouch for Shepard's combat skills personally." Jacob plainly held Shepard in quite high regard, and wasn't about to let him be subjected to more questioning. Since Shepard hadn't been much for talking anyway, Miranda conceded defeat and gave in.

"I suppose you're right. We'll just have to hope the Illusive Man accepts our little field test as evidence enough."

The rest of the trip passed in silence as they flew unnoticed through lonely outskirts of space and onwards to their rendezvous with the Illusive Man. Soon they would find out if Shepard was worth what it had cost to bring him back. Miranda could only hope that the two years she had put into him were not for nothing.

* * *

**Author Notes:**

Ok, I've got a couple of things to talk about, if anyone is interested. Firstly, I got this finished and uploaded fairly quickly, but try not to expect all updates to be this prompt. As a freelancer, my life alternates daily from being insanely busy to very open, and the last few days fell into the latter category. I will try to update around once a week though, unless circumstances interfere.

Most people probably noticed that almost all the dialogue in this chapter comes straight from the game (with context and perspective added in by me). While I will be using scenes from the games, and staying mostly faithful to the original dialogue, I have plans for plenty of original scenes. So for those who are worried that this will just be a straight retelling of the story, never fear!

A few notes on individual details:

-I'd always thought Wilson's plan seemed a bit derpy, especially considering who we find out he'd been working for. It made more sense to me as a contingency plan, so I had Miranda find him out and force him into it. Problem solved.

-You may have picked on the fact that Jacob and Miranda have a history, and they both seem to have different views of said history. Yes, this will be expounded upon later.

-I tried to lay some hints that Shepard is more than your average grunt in terms of intellect. In the games, Shepard's genre savviness and political skill (even if he hates it) demonstrates intelligence that we rarely get to see him utilize in the games. I plan to rectify that somewhat. Who says you can't be badass and clever at the same time?

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and will return for the next. Arrivederci.


	3. Chapter 2: A New Commander

Whew, finally finished this chapter. I had to rewrite half of it, as I accidentally restarted my computer without saving it (derp). Hopefully the next chapter will be up a lot quicker. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 2: A New Commander**

The remainder of their trip had been relatively uneventful, if more than a little uncomfortable. The tension in the air had been palpable, and no one seemed willing to break the silence. Shepard had gone back to staring out the viewport, and Jacob had closed his eyes for a power nap. Soldiers were trained to deal with downtime. Miranda was not. She always preferred to be doing something, be it work, exercise, practicing with a gun, working on biotic conditioning; anything other than sitting in wait. Thankfully, her ordeal was short lived, as they soon arrived at the station. Miranda informed Shepard that the Illusive Man was waiting to speak with him before heading off to investigate the briefing she'd just received. Behind her, she heard Jacob showing Shepard the station's armor locker. Revealingly, Shepard chose to select and don full combat gear _before_ heading down to speak with the Illusive Man. Subtle.

Miranda opened a terminal to view the mission briefing. In spite of everything, it seemed the unplanned timing of Shepard's awakening had worked in their favor. Reports had just come in that a colony had gone dark, within the last solar day. The colony - Freedom's Progress - had more or less dropped off the grid. No communications had come or gone since it had blacked out. Even better, the Alliance was yet to catch on. Finally, they would have a chance to evaluate the site of an attack first hand; maybe now they could get some answers. Assuming, of course, that Shepard could be convinced to work with them. Miranda was confident that any objections he might have about working with Cerberus would be overridden by the obligation she was sure he felt to help out the colonists who were vanishing.

Yes, she was certain Shepard wouldn't be able to resist involving himself with the disappearances, but the real trick would be keeping him from running off to the Alliance at the first chance he got. Luckily for them, the actions of both the Council and the Alliance over the last two years would do more to ensure Shepard had no choice but to work with Cerberus than anything they could have done themselves. The leaders of the galaxy had worked tirelessly to bury the truth, either out of a sense of denial or a mere short sighted self-serving certitude that the status quo was god. True to her speculations, Shepard emerged after a few minutes from the comm room with the look of a man on a mission. Or at least a man about to be.

Surprisingly, his first move was to engage Jacob in conversation. He did understand the time sensitive nature of their mission, did he not? Miranda decided it was best to ascertain exactly what the commander was after, and under the guise of checking another terminal eavesdropped on their discussion. It seemed the commander had been briefed, because his first question was about their mission. He moved on to asking about Jacob's history in the alliance; perhaps he was trying to find some kind of common ground with his reluctant partners? Finally he inquired as to how Jacob ended up with Cerberus. All of Jacob's replies were brief and to the point, and Shepard seemed somewhat satiated, so he ended their conversation. He turned towards Miranda.

_Damn_, it seemed she was not be exempt from Shepard's evaluations. She mentally prepared a resume she hoped would satisfy his curiosity without needing to go into detail. After all, he was a soldier. If there was anything he understood, it was keeping the focus on the mission, right?

"Miranda, do you have a minute?"

_Be accommodating, we need him on our side. _"Of course Commander. The Illusive Man is very impressed with you. I'm eager to see if you live up to his expectations on this mission."

"The implication being that your expectations are somewhat lower."

It seemed the Commander had little patience for polite trivialities. "I have the utmost respect for your abilities, Commander, it's your motivations that concern me. I believe in what Cerberus stands for; only time will tell if you'll be an asset or a liability to our cause."

"On that subject, what can you tell me about this colony we'll be going to?"

"Freedom's progress?" Miranda gathered what she knew from the report she had just finished reading. It wasn't much. "It's a typical human colony on the edge of the terminus systems. Minimal security personnel supplemented with mechs and security drones. Average in almost every way really. Completely unremarkable, until the disappearance."

"Any thoughts on what we might run into down there?"

"A lot of empty buildings and one giant mystery."

"I'd like to know more about the Lazarus Project from the person in charge." _Did he really want to go into this now? _Best to get him off the topic.

"I wasn't in charge, the Illusive Man was. If I was running the show we'd have done a few things differently." Shepard wasn't easily deflected.

"What would you have changed?"

"To start with, I would have implanted you with some sort of control chip, but the Illusive Man wouldn't allow it. He was afraid it might affect your personality, alter your character somehow. He wouldn't allow anything that might restrict your potential." She told him this hoping that an admission of this sort might diminish his desire to continue his questioning.

"I can't say I like the idea of coming back as a slave." Something in the narrowing of his eyes gave Miranda the sudden desire to explain her position.

"The Illusive Man is taking an incredible risk with you. It was my job to maximize our chances of success. I did what I could within the parameters of my assignment. I just hope his gamble pays off." Shepard considered this for a moment before moving on. She could tell, however, that he wasn't going to forget the topic so easily.

"Tell me about yourself, Miranda." This part she had been expecting.

"Worried about my qualifications? I can crush a mech with my biotics or shoot its head off from a hundred meters, take your pick."

"I was trying to get to know you as a person, not a resume." If he was trying to establish a rapport, he'd need to do better than that.

"I'm not looking for a friend, Shepard. Stay focused on the mission."

"Fine. Where did you pick up those skills? Did you serve with Jacob in the Alliance?"

"No, the Illusive Man recognized my potential and recruited me at a young age." That wasn't even close to the whole story, but she wasn't about to give Shepard her autobiography simply because he asked.

"How old were you?"

"Old enough to know that this is what I wanted."

"It's obvious you're not interested in talking." _And yet you persist in asking._ Miranda kept that part to herself.

"We have an assignment, we can talk about it, or we can do it." She saw Shepard's eyebrow raise slightly at that, but he seemed - for the moment - unwilling to belabor the point any further.

* * *

The three of them checked weapons out of a nearby locker, made sure they were stocked up on thermal clips and medi-gel, and then made their way to the same shuttle that had ferried them here. Once again Miranda piloted them out of the docking bay before locking them on course. Freedom's Progress was only a short FTL jump away. After setting their trajectory, she returned to the passenger compartment.

"Commander, the Illusive Man has put you in charge. Do you have any orders before we arrive at Freedom's Progress?"

"Are you sure you'll be comfortable following them?" Despite the question undoubtedly being directed at Miranda, Jacob was the one who answered.

"We didn't bring you back to life just to second guess you. Whatever you say goes."

"All right, then our first priority is to search for anyone who may have survived the attack."

"That's unlikely, there wasn't anyone left at the last few colonies," Miranda noted.

"Unlikely doesn't mean impossible. Besides, if there is anyone left alive, they could provide us with crucial intel. Nothing beats a firsthand account."

"Understood, Commander. And in the event that we find no one?"

"Then we're after the next best thing: answers."

Miranda excused herself back to the cockpit to facilitate their landing. Shepard and Jacob performed last minute equipment checks as they closed in on their destination. Bringing the shuttle down on the outskirts of the colony, the three disembarked.

Before they proceeded, Shepard activated a new feature of his state of the art armor/omni-tool combat suite. It had a long boring official designation, but among soldiers and mercenaries, it was known colloquially as Tech Armor. It was experimental, but had none-the-less been adopted by many combat personnel across the galaxy. The "Armor" worked to enhance the defensive capabilities of shields and barriers in a fight. Essentially, it created a grid of virtual plates all across a soldier's armor. Each plate had individual sensors that interfaced directly with either the soldier's shield generators, or biotic amp in the case of barriers. During a firefight, it would detect which plates were taking the most fire and redirect energy from non-critical zones to those sustaining the most impacts. Combined with advanced combat software, this could substantially increase the length of time shields and barriers could hold up against gunfire. Its effectiveness depended partially on the efficiency of the combat software, but also the ability of the user to make adjustments and refine settings during and between combat. As such it was only given to soldiers and mercs with the tech savvy to make full use of the expensive upgrade. Fortunately, one of Shepard's specialties - along with tactical appraisal and biotic combat - was cyber warfare. As such he would be able to use the Tech Armor to its full potential, drastically increasing his survivability.

Good thing too, as once they had boots on the ground, he indicated he would take point, and they proceed to move on through the colony. The first few pre-fab units they passed through were completely deserted. There were no signs of battle, no structural damage, nothing to indicate where an entire colony's inhabitants had disappeared to. Population estimates put the human presence on the planet at more than 900,000. This particular settlement held only a fraction of the total populace, but that was still thousands of colonists that had vanished without a trace. Just as Miranda had been wondering what had happened to the automated security that was meant to protect colonies such as this, the doors on several housing units had opened up, and LOKI and FENRIS mechs had emerged targeting the three investigators as hostile. Under Shepard's command, they made short work of them, but the larger implication was troubling, and Miranda brought it up as Jacob was scrounging thermal clips off of the remains of one of the mechs.

"Those mechs shouldn't have been hostile, they should have registered us as human."

Shepard agreed, "Either they spontaneously malfunctioned just as this colony went dark, or someone reprogrammed them. My money's on the latter. Keep on your guard, we may not be alone here."

They continued through the colony, albeit a bit more cautiously than before, taking out a few more mechs as they proceeded. Every domicile they passed through made it clearer that whatever had happened, it had happened fast. Electronics hadn't been turned off, food had been left on tables, and doors had been left unlocked. As they approached one unit, they heard sounds coming from inside. Signaling Jacob into place opposite the door from him, Shepard opened the door and came through gun up. Whatever they had expected to find within, it wasn't the squad of Quarians who raised their guns immediately to respond to the apparent threat.

"Stop right there!" commanded the ostensive leader. That assumption was quickly debunked.

"Prazza, you said you'd let me handle this!" another Quarian, a female, pushed past the Prazza, then stopped dead. "Wait… Shepard?"

"I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus Operatives!" That was unfortunate. Miranda had heard that one of Cerberus' cells had been involved in an incident with the Quarian flotilla, but didn't know the details. Need to know, and all that. Given Cerberus' general reputation with the other races, she could at least guess that it hadn't been friendly. This might be a problem.

"Put those weapons down!" The female Quarian insisted. "Shepard? Is that… you're alive?"

"I am now, Tali. Do you remember the Geth data I gave you while you were aboard the Normandy? Did it help you complete your pilgrimage?"

"Yes, it did. Stand down Prazza, this is definitely Commander Shepard."

"Why would your old Commander be working for Cerberus?"

Tali looked towards Shepard, "I don't know, but I'm sure he has a reason."

"I'm not working for Cerberus, I'm investigating the disappearance of human colonists. As far as I'm concerned, they're working for me." That was a worrying attitude. "I know they have a bad past, but they're the only group investigating these missing colonies. I'm not going to turn away help." That was more promising, but Miranda still felt Shepard's view of Cerberus could do with some improvement. Perhaps she could attempt to rectify that later.

After a few moments of discussion among themselves, Tali spoke for the Quarians. She told Shepard that they had come to Freedom's Progress in search of one of their own, Veetor. Apparently he'd been here on pilgrimage. They had surmised that he was the one who had hacked the mechs, and that due to a mental condition and damage to his suit, was dangerously unstable. If he really had been present during the time the colony disappeared, they desperately needed to speak with him. As Shepard himself had said, nothing beats an eye witness account. It was doubtful, however, that the Quarians would be willing to let Cerberus have free reign with one of their own. For the moment, Tali seemed willing at least to work with Shepard, but that might not last. It was readily apparent that she didn't have complete control of the Quarians under her. Miranda heard Shepard asking something, which jarred her out of her musings.

"Your people really don't like Cerberus, what did I miss?" It was Prazza who responded.

"They killed our people, infiltrated our flotilla, and tried to blow up one of our ships!"

"That's not how I would have described it, exactly." Miranda interjected. Nor was it how it had been described to her. She would need to investigate further, but no need for Shepard to get the wrong impression. "It was nothing personal."

True to his nature, Jacob cut in, "We can argue about who killed who later, right now we've got a job to do."

"Agreed," responded Tali, "we work together to find Veetor."

After syncing their omni-tools to allow for short range communication, the two teams - Human and Quarian - split up and advanced through the colony. Over their radio, Tali warned them that security drones were converging on their position. Shepard and Miranda used their tech abilities to disable them, and they continued to move forward. As they approached a pair of massive doors they received a decidedly more panicked transmission from Tali.

"Prazza and his squad went on ahead. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen. Veetor reprogrammed a heavy mech, it's tearing their squad to pieces."

"They did want to get to him first." Miranda commented dryly. Shepard ignored her and ordered Jacob and her to take up positions on either side of the doors as he took a position directly in front of them. Tali opened the door and they rushed through. They were just in time to see the remnants of Prazza's team being massacred. As the last Quarian fell, the YSMIR mech turned its attention to Shepard and Co. Miranda saw Shepard scanning the area, assessing the situation. Seconds later, he directed her and Jacob towards an elevated position in one of the prefab units behind the mech. Giving them an opening to move, he got the mechs attention with an overload that damaged, but failed to take down, its shields. The mech fired up its machine gun, and with added protection of his Tech Armor, Shepard made it to cover behind a shipping crate before his barrier gave way. A missile from the mech blew his cover to pieces, but Shepard rolled to another crate nearby.

By this point, Miranda and Jacob had made it to the prefab unit, which provided much more robust cover as they rained bullets down on the mech from their raised position. Its remaining shields fell in short order, and biotic warp fields from both Shepard and Miranda tore through its ablative armor plating. A quick series of shotgun blasts from Jacob finished the mech off, and it fell - a useless hunk of scrap metal – to the ground.

They briefly checked the nearby housing units for any more hostiles, but they seemed to be clear for the moment. Tali had survived, and was currently checking one of her squad for life signs. Given the amount of blood surrounding him, and what Miranda knew about Quarian immune systems, that seemed unlikely. She had informed them that Veetor was nearby, and that they should go ahead and locate him.

Moments later, they did, in what appeared to be the security control center for the settlement. As they walked in, he seemed completely oblivious to their presence. Shepard tried to get his attention, without much success; his eyes were darting between the various security monitors arrayed before him, and he was muttering to himself about monsters and swarms. Shepard brought up his omni-tool and with a wave shut off all the monitors. Veetor finally turned around.

"Human? But you're alive. How come they didn't find you?"

After a few questions, with answers that made little sense, Veetor turned and brought up footage on all of the screens.

"Looks like security footage," Miranda noted, "He must have pieced it together manually." Impressive for someone in a state such as the delusional Quarian before them. Still, of far greater interest was what was on the footage. Swarms of insect like drones were swarming the colony, freezing any they came in contact with where they stood. _Possibly a stasis field, or fast acting nerve toxin,_ Miranda guessed. It was possible that Veetor survived because they were programmed specifically to target humans. _Lucky for him._ Then came the most startling revelation of all. Collectors. Insectoid aliens, standing about the height of a man. Little was known about them; they rarely appeared in great numbers. They came from beyond the Omega 4 Relay, one that no ship other than a collector vessel has ever returned from traversing. They had technology far beyond that of any other sapient race, and had on occasion traded it for services from mercenaries and slavers. They had taken humans before, but only in the dozens, nothing on the scale of what they were seeing now. What did all of this mean?

There was little time to ponder, as Tali had returned and demanded that Veetor be allowed to leave with her. Miranda had initially objected, citing the unreliability of the Quarians up to this point, but Shepard had overruled her, something that was happening with increasing frequency. They would simply have to hope that Tali made good on her promise to send them the data from Veetor's omni-tool. On a mission such as their, Miranda felt that was more risk than was necessary. Regardless, with nothing left to find on Freedom's Progress, they made their way back to the shuttle and set a course back to the station they had come from.

* * *

Back at the station Shepard had been immediately summoned into the comm room for another session with the Illusive Man. Twice in one day; the Illusive Man must really be enamored with Shepard. Miranda had received a message letting her know that they would be boarding the Stealth Recon - Mark II, something she remembered Shepard was as yet unaware of. If that were true, they'd need the crew ready, and more importantly, the pilot they had recruited. She checked the arrivals log, and saw that while they had been at Freedom's Progress, former Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau had arrived on the station.

He had been Shepard's pilot back in his days aboard the first Normandy, before it had been destroyed in the attack that killed Shepard. According to Lt. Moreau's report, Shepard had died as a result of returning to cockpit to ensure he made it out safely. His last action before being blown out into space had been to launch Moreau's escape pod. She was unsure if his presence would be a good or bad thing for Shepard psychologically, but perhaps the presence of a trusted ally would make Shepard feel more at ease. She heard the doors from the hanger bay open and turned. Speak of the devil…

"Hey Miranda, is what they're saying true?" She glowered at his familiarity. They had only met once before. This didn't, as she had hoped, serve to wipe the smug grin off of his face. "Fine then, Miss Cerberus Operative Lawson, is what they're saying true?"

"What are they saying?"

"Oh you know, just that the new Blasto movie looks like it's going to get nominated for an award- what do you think? Is Shepard really here, and awake?"

Looking at her screen and seeing that Shepard had just finished his debriefing with the Illusive Man she responded, "Why don't you ask him yourself?" She nodded towards the comm room and the flight lieutenant limped off towards the doors. Moments later, he emerged with Shepard, who – upon seeing his old pilot – seemed to be in a much better mood. She followed their conversation without appearing too obvious.

"I can't believe it's you, Joker."

"Look who's talking, I saw you get spaced."

"Got lucky, with a lot of strings attached." That was more flippant than she had seen Shepard thus far. "How did you get here?"

"It all fell apart without you, Commander. Everything you stirred up, the council just wanted it gone. The team was broken up, and I was grounded. They took away the one thing that mattered to me, hell yeah I joined Cerberus." He certainly seemed more enthusiastic about it than Shepard. They passed through the doors to the hanger. Miranda followed from a distance.

"You really trust the Illusive Man?"

"I don't trust anyone who makes more than I do, but they're not all bad. Saved your life, let me fly. Then there's this." Joker hit a few switches in the hanger and the lights surrounding the new ship began to turn on. "They only told me about it last night."

Even aside from the technological wonders that lay beneath its surface, the new Stealth Recon Mark II was a beautiful ship. It was massive, more than double the size of an ordinary frigate, but its elegant curves and gleaming surface betrayed what a graceful ship it could be in flight, given the right pilot. Shepard and Joker soaked in the view for nearly a full minute before either of them spoke.

"It's good to be home, eh, commander?"

For the first time since she had met him, Shepard's whole face was lit up with a genuine smile, "I guess we'll have to give her a name."

"Way ahead of you. I already talked to an engineer, and the painters are on it. I would like to officially introduce you to the new Normandy."

Shepard echoed Joker's earlier comment, "It is, indeed, good to be home."

A few hours later, once the crew had boarded, and all essentially supplies had been loaded onto the ship, Shepard himself entered, flanked by Miranda and Jacob. He paused in the middle of the CIC to take in his surroundings. Miranda took the opportunity to fill him in on their current mission.

"I've been looking over the dossiers for potential recruits. I'd strongly advice we start by acquiring Mordin Solus, a Salarian professor on Omega. We know the collectors use some kind of advanced technology to immobilize their victims. We'll need him to develop a countermeasure to protect us."

Shepard mulled it over then agreed. "Without that countermeasure, we'll be helpless if we ever run into the Collectors." Well, at least he didn't feel the need to disagree with her about everything.

"Acquiring Professor Solus seems like the most logical place to start," interjected EDI, the ship's on board AI. The Normandy SR-2 was the first ship ever to have been equipped with an artificial intelligence, and while it was a risk, the benefits were substantial. Shepard seemed to take the news relatively well. If anything, he seemed more concerned with what Joker's reaction would be to a computer messing around with his ship. That might have been a joke.

Miranda and Jacob finished briefing the Commander, answering the few questions he had about the ship and their crew. Satisfied, he went to the elevator, presumable to explore and become familiar with the rest of the ship. He was intercepted on the way by Miss Kelly Chambers, who introduced herself. Miranda didn't like Kelly very much personally; something about her determined cheerfulness just always rubbed her the wrong way. That and her seemingly instant infatuation with any attractive member of either gender she met. She would probably have a field day with Shepard. Miranda was about to head down to her office to get settled in when Jacob called her over.

"Hey Miranda, could I borrow you for a minute?" He was standing at the edge of the door to the armory. She half wanted to decline, but decided against it. She walked through the door and it closed behind her as Jacob also entered. Leaning against a wall, she looked at Jacob expectantly. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before starting.

"I had some insight, you know, about Shepard, if you want to hear it. I think it might help; you seemed to have some difficulty talking to him." He put up a hand to stop her response, "What I mean is, speaking with him in a way he'll respond positively to."

Miranda saved the retort she had been forming. No harm in hearing him out. "All right, go ahead."

"You know as well as I do, maybe better, that Shepard's seen more shit than the two of us put together. I don't know what you were doing when you were sixteen, but he was buried under a pile of rubble as slavers killed or captured everyone he ever knew. Past that, the guy's a career marine, Special Forces. Pretty much goes from one nightmare to the next on a daily basis. Finally gets a break on Elysium, only for a god damn army to show up there too."

"Presumably you're going somewhere with this."

"Yeah, just give me a sec. So, two years ago, he's on an assignment, which we both know is basically designed to keep him out of the way so his crazy ideas about reapers don't start a panic. Then bam. He gets killed. Anyone else, that's the end, but we drag his ass back from the dead and stick him right back on the same mission that got him killed. If it were me, I doubt I'd be as willing to jump right back into the action."

"I'm afraid I still don't see your point."

"My point is that with everything we know about the commander, it's easy to forget he's not just a weapon or an asset, he's a person."

"So… what, do you want me to give him a hug?"

"No," Jacob shook his head, "he's not a little kid. Just remember that nothing's forcing him to be here. He chose to help us. Maybe he'd feel better about that if you let him know _you_ as a person too. We've all got ways of dealing with the shit we do - you kind of have to - and from what I know about Shepard, he deals with things by getting to know his crew. It's probably not that simple, but just humor me, ok?"

Miranda had been silent for most of Jacob's speech. She wasn't sure if she agreed with all of it, but Jacob had seemed to get along fairly well with Shepard, so maybe he had a perspective on him that she was lacking. In any case, taking his advice couldn't hurt. "I'll keep that in mind." She turned to leave, then paused, "Thanks Jacob."

"No problem."

As she walked to the elevator to head down to her own quarters, she considered his recommendation. Let Shepard get to know her. She doubted Jacob understood what that really meant for her, but then again, that was just a side effect of her private nature. Letting someone in wasn't something she'd done for a long, long time, and she wasn't sure she remembered how. Time to learn, then.

* * *

**Author Notes:**

Yay! We finally got the Normandy, which means the story opens up immensely. There's not really a lot a variation in the beginning of Mass Effect 2 (admittedly, for understandable reasons). Now that Shepard and Co. are on the ship though, I've got a lot more freedom, in terms of where I can go. If anyone is wondering, no, I don't plan on writing word for word retreads of every single mission in the game. From this point on, I'll be able to focus just on the stories necessary to the plot, and the ones involving Miranda and Shepard (along with a few new scenes I have plans for). Hopefully you guys aren't bored of me yet, and will continue to read future chapters. If you have feedback that you'd rather not share in a review, feel free to pm me, and I will be sure to respond. Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 3: A Stop at the Citadel

Wow, I meant to get this chapter done a while ago. First I got distracted by E3, then I started playing the Witcher 2, and then a few days disappeared. Heh, good game, that. Anyway, I finally got around to finishing it, so enjoy (I'll try to make the next chapter quicker)!

* * *

**Chapter 3: A Stop at the Citadel**

Miranda settled into her new quarters quite easily. She had moved most of her vital possessions in when the Normandy SR-2 had been completed a few weeks before. There wasn't much. Miranda had never stayed in one place very long. Come to think of it, the two years she had spent working on Shepard had been the longest she'd lived in one place for nearly eighteen years. A consequence of this lifestyle was that Miranda usually traveled light, always ready to uproot and move on to the next project or mission.

Her cabin was the most luxurious on the entire ship, other than the captain's cabin; "the loft" as the engineers who had constructed the Normandy jokingly referred to it. She had a desk, a couch, several chairs, a double bed, and room to move around. That was more than most could expect on a ship on active duty. A lot of lesser crewmen had to make do with a bunk and a footlocker. All in all, the XO's office was as good a base of operations as any.

Her terminal had a few special features none of the others in the ship possessed. As part of her job as the XO (and the Illusive Man's supervising agent) she was meant to monitor external communications. To facilitate this, and other observational abilities, she could mirror any other terminal on the ship to her own. This extended even to Shepard's personal terminal in his cabin. She also had access to the impressive suite of monitoring devices arrayed throughout the ship. Finally, she had full access to all reports generated by EDI (who also had access to the monitoring devices) on a daily basis.

Making use of these resources, she decided to check on Shepard. A quick scan alerted her that he was on Deck 4, engineering. She brought up one of the surveillance cameras. At the moment he was listening to Ken Donnelly explain something about FBA couplings. Probably a maintenance report. All across the rest of the ship, people were acclimatizing to their positions. Most of their crew was ex-alliance in some capacity. The Illusive Man had insisted on constructing a crew that Shepard would find as agreeable as possible. Some - like Donnelly – had been recruited specifically for this mission. Joker wasn't the only crew member who had worked with Shepard before, either. Dr. Karin Chakwas had served under both Shepard and Captain Anderson before him. When she had been recruited, she had been asked to invite Gregory Adams, the Chief Engineer on the old Normandy, but evidently he had decline the offer.

After a brief sojourn examining the sub deck in engineering (for some reason), Shepard took the elevator up a floor to the crew deck. Several of the crewmen saluted him as he entered the mess hall. Unnecessary, seeing as this wasn't a military ship, but as most of the crew were ex-military, old habits must die hard. Or maybe it was a sign of respect? Either way Shepard put them at ease, and took to conversing with the ship's Mess Sergeant (among other things) Rupert Gardner. Did Shepard really feel the need to meet every member of the crew? It seemed Jacob's assessment might be more accurate than she realized. He proceeded to visit Dr. Chakwas, greet a few of the crewmen on break in the crew quarters, inspect the life support room, then finally made his way towards Miranda's office. She hurriedly closed the surveillance feeds and opened a budget report. Seconds later her door opened and Shepard stepped through.

"Miranda, do you have a few minutes to talk?" _Full of creative greetings, this one_…

"Of course, Shepard. No doubt you've got a lot of questions. Cerberus isn't as evil as everyone believes. If I can help allay any of your concerns I'd be happy do so." She motioned for Shepard to have a seat in front of her desk. He did so. She had noticed some of his movements were still a little stiff, especially any motions that involved bending his torso, like sitting down. He hid it well, but it was obvious to her that he was still in some degree of pain; one of the unintended consequences of waking him up early. She would ask the doctor to examine him later.

"So what would you like to know?"

"I know what we're doing here, but I'd like to hear what you would describe as Cerberus' long term goal."

"The advancement of the human race," Miranda allowed a hint of pride to enter her voice, "nothing more, nothing less. The Salarians have the STG, the Asari have their legendary commandos. Cerberus is humanity's answer to those organizations."

"But those organizations are regulated by governments," observed Shepard. "Who keeps Cerberus in check?"

"Nobody; we're privately funded and our backers trust the Illusive Man to make the right decisions. But he's very clear about our goals: protect humanity, and serve its advancement."

"You don't think it's dangerous to allow one man that much power?"

"I would say it depends on the man. The Illusive Man has proven time and time again his dedication to his work. If there were a problem, well… part of the benefit of working outside the system is if there were any concerns regarding one of our own, we would be free to deal with it ourselves."

"Still, it seems the lack of oversight could be hazardous in the long run. In my experience, every time you compromise your morals it becomes easier and easier to justify. Without anyone to keep him in line, the Illusive Man could easily lose perspective."

"He's no saint, and he'd be the first to admit it, but I can assure that he has humanity's best interests at heart. That includes you and me."

"You seem pretty certain of that, do you have personal experience working with him?"

"Not much, but I haven't gotten to where I am without being able to gauge people's motives and ambitions, even from brief encounters. I'm confident that whatever… issues… he might have, the Illusive Man is on the side of humanity; I doubt you could find a better advocate."

"As they say, nothing but time will tell." Shepard sat up straighter and leaned forward slightly. "I know you didn't want to discuss it earlier, but I'd feel better working with you if I knew where you were coming from."

Miranda kept in mind her talk with Jacob. "I guess that's fair, I spent two years learning everything there is to know about you." Miranda stood and walked to the edge of her desk. She searched mentally for something to tell Shepard, and settled on an area that could prove to be integral to the mission.

"I suppose you should know that I've had extensive genetic modification. Not my decision, but I make the most of it. It's one of the reasons the Illusive Man hand-picked me to lead the Lazarus Project. I'm very good at just about anything I choose to do."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "Well you certainly don't lack for confidence."

"It's just a fact, my reflexes, my strength, even my looks; they're all designed to give me an edge. No point in hiding from it. It's the reason I'm trusted oversee the most risky, dangerous, and technically demanding operations that Cerberus undertakes. And it's why I was assigned to you. It's my job to make sure you succeed, Shepard."

Shepard cocked his head quizzically. "What level of genetic modification are we talking about here?"

"It's very thorough. Physically, I'm superior in most ways. I heal quickly and I'll likely live half again as long as the average human. My biotic abilities are also very advanced, for a human, anyways. Add that to some of the best training and education that money can buy and, well it's pretty impressive really."

"Sounds like you were designed to be perfect."

"Maybe, but I'm not. I'm still human, Shepard, I make mistakes like everyone else. And when I do the consequences can be severe. Everyone expects a lot from someone with my… abilities." That last part had slipped out. She supposed she had thought Shepard might be able to relate, but that sort of self-doubt was not something she normally allowed others to be aware of. Shepard seemed to sense she was uncomfortable, because he decided to wrap up the conversation.

"Thanks for the information, Miranda. It was… informative." Was that a grin he was hiding? "By the way, I've asked Joker to plot a course to the Citadel." Miranda had guessed that might be his first destination. Somehow, David Anderson had tracked down Shepard's new extranet address and sent him a message, asking him to explain his case before the Council. As a counselor, she guessed he must have access to some remarkable resources, and of course there was the matter of the information the Illusive Man had already begun leaking to Alliance sources regarding Shepard, but it was impressive none-the-less. She sensed they must have been more than just officer and subordinate for him to have put this much effort into tracking Shepard down. As such, dissuading Shepard from going straight to the Citadel would have been a losing proposition, so she merely acknowledged the update, and Shepard left to go to his cabin.

In spite of herself, she had actually enjoyed her conversation with the Commander. His dislike of Cerberus was clearly less with the organization than their methodology; a point she had to concede was slightly troubling. In her experience, however, the organization did more good than it did harm, and the freedom to work outside the bureaucracy of the system was worth the risks it imposed. It was clear though that Shepard wasn't just going to take her word for it, and she relished the opportunity to show Shep- someone all the good Cerberus could do.

* * *

After a few hours of travel, the Normandy finally passed through the relay to the Widow System. A short time later, they were requesting docking clearance at one of the wards; Zakera Ward, to be specific. Despite having a Council Spectre (or possibly an Ex-Spectre, it was unclear at this point where Shepard stood legally; his situation was rather unique) aboard, they were technically a civilian ship (belonging to the shell corporation Cord-Hislop Aerospace). As such, they had to follow regular procedure as far as docking was concerned. Once they had cleared all necessary checks Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob disembarked. Most of the crew would be staying on board; they wouldn't be here long.

They moved through the next layer of security (scans examining what they were transporting into the ward, and verifying their identity), but were stopped when some sort of buzzer went off. The C-Sec officer in attendance - a Turian - seemed confused, talking on his earpiece with his supervisor.

"Uh Sir, the scanner picked up… yeah I know what it says… but you don't seriously think… yeah, ok." He looked up sheepishly at Shepard. "Sorry for the inconvenience, Sir, but the scanner seems to think you're, well, dead."

"I was only mostly dead; try finding that option on government paperwork." Government paperwork; reason #153 Miranda was glad she worked for Cerberus. Navigating that miasma must be trying at the best of times. She could only imagine what Shepard must have had to go through - bureaucratically speaking - after the battle of the Citadel, even as a Spectre.

"Uh… right, Sir, but you're still going to have to clear it with the Captain. He'll be on your right as you enter." The officer then buzzed them through the final checkpoint and they entered the ward. As they entered the C-Sec office, they walked in on the aforementioned Captain speaking energetically to one of his subordinates about getting information out of a suspect. Clearly he was not someone who fooled around. Shepard got his attention, and after a short conversation, the Captain - whose name they discovered was Armando Bailey – happily rubber stamped (figuratively of course) Shepard's paperwork, making him officially alive. Wonderful, now they needn't be working with one of the undead, how lovely. He also informed them that the Council was awaiting Shepard's arrival, and directed them to a cab station to transport them to the embassies.

When they arrived, they were stopped at the door to Anderson's office by one of the guards. "Sorry, only the Commander is authorized to enter. You two will need to wait outside." Hardly surprising, anything involving the Council and a Spectre was bound to be highly classified, and as a civilian (technically speaking) Miranda had no clearance. Jacob had served in the alliance, but his clearance barely extended beyond the operations he had been directly involved in, and as such he wasn't eligible to enter either. Shepard entered on his own. The two Cerberus personnel had little choice but to stand by idly.

After a few minutes, a human in formal attire, whom Miranda recognized as Donnel Udina - humanity's ambassador and special advisor to Councilor Anderson - walked briskly by. He was cleared by the guards and entered the office. Moments later, he stormed back out muttering to himself. As he passed Miranda caught a few words, "… god damn soldiers..." Obviously not one of Shepard's fans then, nor Anderson's, unless there was another soldier in the office she was unaware of to necessitate the plural.

They were not forced to wait much longer, as soon after Udina left, Shepard himself emerged from the office, walking next to Anderson. They stopped just outside the door and Anderson extended his hand, which Shepard took. "It was good to see you. I'll try to keep the council and the Alliance off your back. Just…" he glanced at Miranda and Jacob, "…be careful." _Working with Cerberus,_ Miranda mentally finished.

"I will," Shepard replied, ending the handshake. As Anderson retired back into his office, Shepard turned to Miranda and Jacob.

"So, how did it go," Jacob inquired.

"As well as can be expected. I was 'reinstated' as a Spectre, for whatever good that will do. Also, while they can't officially condone any actions I'm taking, as long as I confine myself to the Terminus Systems, they've assured me they won't interfere. So it seems, for the moment, I'm all yours. I have a few things to do in the ward before we leave. Let's meet back at the Normandy; we have a lot to do."

There was no arguing with that. The three of them split up; Jacob wanted to requisition a few supplies while they were docked and Miranda departed to return to the ship. All in all, she felt things could have gone far worse. Shepard hadn't abandoned Cerberus at the first opportunity, which was a good sign as far as their tenuous working relationship was concerned. Considering they were going to be operating in the Terminus Systems, a region of space not known for acknowledging Council authority, Shepard's reinstatement as a Spectre was likely to be largely irrelevant, at least as far as their mission was concerned. Still, resources were resources, and they weren't in a position to turn down help, something Miranda was keenly aware of.

* * *

An hour or so after Miranda arrived at the ship first Jacob, then Shepard returned. Their next destination was to be Omega, to recruit Mordin Solus, as Miranda had previously suggested. There would be some downtime before they arrived, and Miranda decided to follow up on her earlier inclination to have Shepard checked out by Dr. Chakwas. Theoretically, the discomfort he was feeling should fade on its own, given time, but it couldn't hurt to get him checked out. Shepard was currently in his cabin, so Miranda sent a message to his terminal, asking him to head down to the med bay before they arrived at Omega. After a short time, a reply appeared on her terminal saying it could wait. The truth was, it probably could, but Miranda was loathe to leave anything to chance. She decided if he wouldn't come down, she would go up and take care of it herself.

She took a few minutes to finish up her reports, then stopped by the med bay to pick up a few things. Holding them under one arm, she entered the elevator and hit the button for the captain's cabin. Exiting the elevator, Miranda hit the buzzer next to the door to the cabin itself.

"It's not locked," came Shepard's voice from within.

Miranda strode in, laying down the supplies she'd brought on the desk next to the door. Shepard himself was reclining on the bed, propped up against the backboard. Strewn next to him were parts of a disassembled avenger assault rifle. Shepard was holding the firing mechanism, and appeared to be making some adjustments.

"Was the rifle malfunctioning?" Miranda inquired. "There are others on the ship if you need a replacement."

"No, its fine, but a friend of mine taught me a few tricks to calibrate the rifle for improved accuracy." He looked down at the parts lying all around him. "It does require getting your hands dirty though." Looking back up at Miranda, he asked, "Did you need something?"

"If you won't go to the med bay, I insist you allow me to perform a brief examination. It's possible there might have been some complications as a result of…" Miranda trailed off. She had just noticed something. Shepard was wearing one of the casual uniforms Cerberus had provided, and there was something in the shirt pocket. Something that was moving.

"Uh, Shepard?"

"Yeah?" His face was completely expressionless. As Miranda watched, a small furry head poked above the edge of the pocket.

"Shepard, what is that?"

"It's part of the firing mechanism." He held it up and waggled it about. He knew damn well that wasn't what she was asking about. The fuzzy little mammal cocked its head quizzically at her, almost exactly like Shepard had done earlier. As for Shepard, his face was still unhelpfully blank. Miranda would have to take a more direct approach.

"You have an animal in your shirt." Yep. Direct.

"Who, Hermes? He seems to like it there." As if in confirmation, the hamster made a little *meep* noise, then lowered its head back into the pocket.

"You have a hamster in your shirt, and you've named it Hermes."

"Yep." How in the hell was he managing to look so innocent? "I saw the little guy while we were on the Citadel, and couldn't pass him up. I thought about naming him Boo, but it seemed undignified for a creature of his caliber."

Miranda wasn't often lost for words, but she couldn't for the life of her think of an appropriate response to the situation she had found herself in. Fortunately Shepard wasn't as paralyzed.

"You… wanted to do some kind of exam? Is there something wrong with me?" Clearly there was something wrong with a man who had bought a hamster on his mission to save the galaxy, but that wasn't the reason Miranda was here. She shook herself out of her daze.

"That's what I want to find out. We woke you up more than two weeks early, I need to make sure you're healing properly."

"Will it take long?"

Miranda shook her head, "No, I just need you to stand up and let me do a few scans. Oh, and you'll need to put down your… ah… pet."

"All right." Shepard put down the firing mechanism he had been working on and stood up. He walked over to the desk and removed Hermes from his pocket, laying him down in a clear plastic cage. Turning to face Miranda, he asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"Just keep your arms at your sides and stand still." Shepard complied, and she grabbed a medical baton and linked it to a datapad. Way back when, batons like this had been used to scan for metal at security checkpoints. In the century and a half since they'd been introduced all sorts of scanners had been incorporated into the design. The particular model Miranda was holding was an advanced medical version, which could - when passed over someone - produce multiple detailed scans of various systems instantaneously, which could be viewed in real time when linked to a display.

Switching it on, Miranda first ran it the length of Shepard's body. On the display, a skeleton appeared. Miranda verified the integrity of the scan than switched the setting on the baton, and ran it over Shepard a few more times, taking images and readings of the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems, and then another of the epidermal layer. The last confirmed the most obvious problem. They had been re-growing Shepard's natural dermal architecture over the modifications they had made, but the process had been interrupted by his awakening. The result was clearly visible in the scarring on his face. What the scan had told her was that the skin wasn't going to finish growing back on its own.

As she was reviewing the results, Shepard asked, "So what's the prognosis? Am I going to spontaneously combust?"

Miranda frowned, "Unlikely, but as you've probably noticed, you have some scars that haven't healed yet. I was hoping they would do so naturally, but partially as a result of the cybernetic augmentations we've equipped you with, that doesn't seem to be an option. If you were to take it easy for a while, you might heal on your own-" Shepard looked incredulous, "-but given your lifestyle, that's not really possible. I'll talk to Dr. Chakwas and see if we can come up with a solution." Miranda gathered up the few tools she had brought with her and moved to leave. As she was about to exit, she decided she had to ask.

"Uh... Shepard… why…?"

"… did I buy a hamster on a mission to save the galaxy?" Shepard finished for her. Miranda nodded weakly in reply. "If there's one thing I've learned, it's that when so much in your life is uncertain and out of control, it's the small things that keep you sane."

Personally, Miranda had always just channeled any uncertainty into her work, but as Jacob had said, everyone had their own ways of coping. Somewhat satisfied, Miranda turned to leave again.

"Besides, I always wanted a pet, but alliance regs are hell."

* * *

**Author Notes:**

Again, sorry, this should have been done a while ago, but I kept getting distracted by events and games around E3. I also wasn't kidding when I said that the Witcher 2 pretty much made me lose 2 days. Really, really good game. Anyway, I wasn't too happy with the way the middle part of this chapter turned out, I had plans for something else happening during their visit to the Citadel, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what the hell it was (not Kasumi, she'll be later). Bleh. Hopefully, I'll be more focused this week. The hamster part, however, was written in my head from the instant I started writing this story. I always wondered what the various crew member's reactions would be to finding out Shepard had bought a hamster, and here I got to show Miranda's. Stick around for the next chapter in which stuff happens involving people at certain places. Yup.


	5. Chapter 4: Omega and Omission

Yay, I'm back on schedule. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Omega and Omission**

Operative Lawson's Progress Report – Subject: Omega

As per my recommendation we began our recruiting on Omega. Upon docking we were temporarily accosted by goons employed by the self-styled "Queen" of Omega, Aria T'loak. Despite Cerberus' tenuous relations with the powers-that-be on Omega, it was Shepard's presence - not ours – that concerned Aria. In the words of her Batarian messenger, "Things tend to explode around you Shepard." An apt summary, if my reports are anything to go by. Shepard decided to comply, not wishing to make more enemies than he already had. Our meeting with T'loak was uneventful. The long and short of it was that we would keep a wide birth of any of Aria's activities, and she'd leave us to our own devices, unmolested by her cronies. She even gave Shepard a lead on Mordin Solus.

Apparently, the district in which the Salarian Professor had established his clinic was suffering from some sort of plague. Popular opinion was that it had been artificially manufactured, as it targeted all races but humans. The Vorcha, thanks to their adaptive metabolisms perhaps, also seemed to be immune, and were wreaking havoc; although whether on behalf of an interested third party or merely out of a selfish opportunism was unclear at the time. Shepard talked us through the quarantine's perimeter, and we made our way through the barricades. The entire district was in chaos. The Blue Suns were vying with packs of Vorcha for dominance, and both groups were implicitly hostile to our little trio, unable to distinguish us from the groups of human looters scurrying around the peripheries of the district. Not that it would have matter if they had.

After a fair few fire fights, we arrived at the clinic, which was guarded by military grade mechs. The corpses of a couple of Blue Suns mercs were arranged out in front, possibly left there as some sort of deterrent or warning. It seemed to be working, as the area immediately surrounding the clinic seemed to be fairly quiet. We were allowed inside, on the condition that we kept our weapons holstered. Inside we found Professor Solus, who quickly deduced we weren't refugees, mercs, or soldiers (although arguments could still be made for Shepard and Jacob), before Shepard managed to placate him with an explanation of our presence. Mordin agreed to accompany us, on the condition that we help him distribute a cure he'd developed. Evidently his medical prowess was not overstated. He informed us that the rumors of the plague having been purposefully synthesized and released were true, and his primary suspects were the Collectors, working through the Vorcha as intermediaries (I recommend a thorough investigation into this claim).

Fighting our way through more Vorcha (the Blue Suns, for the most part, seemed to have temporarily abandoned most of their holdings) we made it to the ventilation systems for the district, which the Vorcha had been in the process of shutting off. After foiling their intended sabotage, we injected the cure into the fans, and reactivated the ventilation systems. Returning to Mordin, he assessed that the plague had been neutralized, and left with us as promised. He left the clinic to his assistant, David, whom Shepard had saved from a few Batarians (who had suspected he had been distributing the plague) on the way to the life support systems.

While we were on Omega, Shepard decided it would be best to pursue the other provided dossier supposedly present on the station: Archangel, a Turian vigilante whose origin was unknown. Rumors were swirling around that three mercenary gangs (the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and the Blood Pack) were colluding to take him down (a nearly unprecedented event), and that they had just recently dismantled the rest of his group and cornered the Turian himself. If it were true, time was of the essence. We returned to Afterlife to see if Aria could shed any light on the situation. She wasn't very forthcoming, but Shepard managed to learn that the merc gangs were recruiting freelancers from a station in Afterlife itself for an assault on Archangel's base of operations. Plainly we needed to get on that mission.

We enlisted, and got directions from the merc recruiter. After a brief cab ride, we arrived at a makeshift staging area, in which could be found representatives of all the gangs. The tension was palpable between them; this alliance of theirs was fragile at best. Passing through the ranks of the mercs, Shepard was able to covertly sabotage their heavy mech, disabling its friend/foe identification systems. A move possibly inspired by recent events, but an excellent strategy none-the-less. Before the assault began he also took out the mechanic who had been working on the mercenary gunship, ensuring that its shield generators weren't repaired. If it attacked, it would only be able to rely on its armor, facilitating an easier take down.

After crossing the bridge to Archangel's HQ, we engaged the other freelance mercs, and took out the infiltration team as it attempted to plant explosives around the building. Wiping up the few remaining mercs in the building, we made our way to the top floor where we met up with Archangel himself. He revealed his identity to be none other than Garrus Vakarian, a former crewmate of Shepard's who had helped him take down Saren (note – another trusted companion could help Shepard to feel more at ease on this mission). Their initial plans thwarted, the mercs sent wave after wave of troops and mechs against the building. With our help (and Shepard's sabotage), Archangel fended them off successfully for quite some time. We were about to make a break for it when the gunship made an appearance. Thanks again to Shepard's sabotage we were able to dispatch it, but not before Vakarian was grievously injured by a missile.

We managed to stabilize him and get him back to the Normandy but he was in a bad way. At this point, it looks like he will survive, but his viability as an asset is questionable, as we don't know how capable he'll be upon his eventual recovery. I'll be sure to send a copy of Dr. Chakwas' medical evaluation as soon as she completes it. I will be submitting a more detailed report on the other events on Omega by the end of the day.

-Operative Lawson

* * *

Miranda finished and sent off the report. She decided to check on Chakwas' progress with the injured Turian. It had been several hours since they had gotten back to the Normandy, so there was bound to be an update. To her surprise, when she opened the med bay surveillance cams, Garrus was nowhere to be seen. She quickly scanned the rest of the ship, and found he had taken the elevator up a level to the CIC. The reason became quickly apparent as he entered the comm room where Shepard and Jacob had been talking and greeted Shepard with a warm handshake. He was recovering much faster than expected; perhaps he could still be useful on their mission. In any event Shepard certainly seemed glad to see him.

Vakarian's short term prognosis no longer in doubt, Miranda turned her attention to another matter. She'd been researching potential methods to facilitate healing Shepard's scars. They would only worsen the more strenuous activity he was subjected to, and given his current engagements… it was an issue that needed to be resolved post haste. During her investigations, she'd happened across something she thought could be uniquely valuable to the crew of the Normandy, and also provide a solution to Shepard's condition. It required a few special materials in addition to the primary cost that they would need to acquire. Miranda wanted to proceed but seeing as Shepard was –ostensibly at least – in command she would need to consult him.

Looking back to the surveillance feeds, Miranda waited until Shepard was free. Dr. Chakwas had pursued Garrus to the comm room, and had dragged him back down to the med bay, in spite of his protests. Shepard had tried to follow, but had been shooed away by the Doctor. Shrugging, he entered the research cabin (where Mordin had already begun setting up) to check in on the Salarian Professor. Already Mordin had found and disabled most of the surveillance devices in the room, but he had as of yet failed to spot one or two low tech models, which had been employed specifically for the difficulty that detecting them entailed. The picture was slightly worse quality, but Miranda was able to observe their conversation.

While clearly quite capable, the Salarian had a number of peculiar… eccentricities. For one thing he didn't seem to have time for full sentences, and his speech was rapid and clipped. Shepard endured the oddities and learned that Mordin had worked with the STG before opening his clinic Omega. He would have already known this if he had bothered to read the extensive profiles Miranda had forwarded to him the moment he had arrived on the ship. Shepard had elected to ignore them, mentioning something about military (and by extension Cerberus) personnel reports being, "not worth the paper they were printed on." A fanciful expression, considering paper had fallen out of general usage decades ago, but his meaning was clear. Shepard had demonstrated thoroughly that he believed nothing substituted for actual interaction with your subordinates. Even during the few days they had been on the ship, Shepard made regular rounds, and had at the very least met every single member of the crew. He ate in the mess hall, rather than in his cabin, and when not sleeping, reading up on events that he had missed since his… absence, or performing maintenance on his equipment he could usually be found wandering the ship checking up on the crew.

* * *

When Shepard finally did retire to his cabin, Miranda let him settle in for a little while before buzzing him on the intercom. "Shepard, do you have a few minutes?" _Damn… now I'm doing it._

"Sure I'll be right down." Miranda had been about to add that this conversation could take place over the intercom, but as Shepard had already jumped up and walked to the elevator, it seemed a little late. Oh well. Moments later, the Commander entered Miranda's office and sat in front of her desk.

"I see Vakarian is up and about," Miranda led off.

"Not if Doc has anything to say about it. She can be downright tyrannical sometimes." Shepard grinned.

"Yes… well… anyway, do you remember the conversation we had in your cabin?"

"Yeah. Scars not healing, vigorous lifestyle, solution pending, yes?" Shepard summarized.

"Exactly. I think I've found that solution. In fact, what I've got in mind could provide benefits beyond simple reconstruction."

"Oh? What did you have in mind?" Shepard seemed intrigued.

"I found an experimental cyber augmentation unit that could, with a little effort, be incorporated into our existing med bay. It could easily manufacture a synthetic protein overlay to cover your scars, but it has additional functionalities that could prove useful."

"Such as?"

"Well, with Mordin aboard to assist, the device could be used to implement several experimental augmentations, improving any number of combat functions. If we find any augmentation designs, you - and any willing combat personnel - could be equipped with them."

"What level of augmentation are we talking about?" Shepard asked incredulously.

"Nothing that stretches philosophical boundaries, I assure you. What I have in mind are akin to advanced versions of augmentations alliance marines are already being equipped with. This device just means we could implement these upgrades in house, as it were."

Shepard considered. "Sounds too good to be true, I assume there's a catch coming."

"Well there is something," Miranda conceded, "The device is currently a prototype designed by a small independent research lab. They haven't actually built a working model yet. Through one of our shell corporations I approached them with an interest in testing the prototype. They were willing, but require a large amount of platinum to construct the device. If we were to supply it, they would give us use of the prototype upon its construction. All we need to do is acquire that platinum."

"Funny you should say that." Shepard began, "Because I've got something that might help. Remember that data pad I took from the mercs when we were passing through their encampment?" Miranda nodded.

"Well, I took a look at it after we got Garrus out, and guess what? It was evidence that after taking down 'Archangel' they were preparing to move against none other than the Queen of Omega. Since I figured we couldn't piss off the mercs much more than we already had, I forwarded the message to Aria. Turns out she was grateful, because she sent me the location of a cache of minerals belonging to Eclipse. They're only guarded by a few heavy mechs; the minerals are practically ours for the taking."

"Well," Miranda responded thoughtfully, "If there's platinum there, we could in turn hand it over to the research lab and get our prototype augmentation device."

"Exactly. Sounds like a win-win to me. Mercs get screwed, and we get a shiny new toy. Unless you've got an objection, I'm going to give Joker the coordinates." Miranda indicated that she didn't and Shepard left to talk to Joker.

* * *

Miranda had to admit (well, at least to herself) that she was somewhat flummoxed by Shepard. His demeanor had changed drastically since their first meeting where he had drawn his gun on her defensively. She was finding it difficult to reconcile his actions with his comportment. Based on her reports of his conduct while with the alliance she had been expecting some sort of Boy Scout, all proper and dedicated. After his initial period of distrust, however, he had really opened up. He had a detached, casual bearing that made him very approachable as far as the crew was concerned. But he also displayed a certain calculated coolness in the field that belied his sometimes idealistic actions, which Miranda found confusing. During their excursion on Omega, he had been drawn into dealing with several problems that didn't concern him. While picking up new FBA Couplings at a small stall in the markets, he had heard about how the Quarian who ran the shop was being strong armed by an Elcor businessman in the same market. Shepard had intimidated the Elcor into letting the Quarian out of his obligations, and proceeded to pay for the Quarian's fair off planet out of his own pocket. Someone he had never met before. Madness.

Additionally, while they were on their way to the life support systems while assisting Mordin, Shepard had taken the time to search the side passages for David - Mordin's assistant - despite the time sensitive nature of their mission. The fact that they succeeded on both counts was immaterial as far as Miranda was concerned. She found all this to be at odds with the Shepard who had stabbed a Batarian mechanic in the back and sabotaged a mech to fire on its own men. Both of these were practical - if somewhat cold - decisions that just didn't fit with either the Shepard who went out of his way to help anyone who needed it, or the Shepard who casually chatted with her about upgrades to the ship. Certainly he came across as charming- uh... amicable, but was that a façade to put people at ease? Was he like Miranda, but instead of keeping people at a distance, letting them in to facilitate trust? Or was that the real Shepard, and the sometimes cold actions he took in combat merely conciliations acknowledging the reality he lived in? All of this bore further investigation. Yes, Miranda concluded, she would need to get to know Shepard better.

* * *

After a short FTL jump to a system adjacent to Omega, they arrived at the specified coordinates. Mordin was already hard at work developing a countermeasure to the seeker swarms the collectors employed, and Garrus was confined to the med bay (Dr. Chakwas had gone so far as to threaten to cuff him to his bed if he tried to leave before she cleared him). As such, Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob went down on their own. Things went fairly smoothly. Shepard drew fire from two of the heavy mechs to prevent them from destroying the cargo they had come for while Miranda and Jacob dealt with the other. After that, the three hit the remaining mechs in a crossfire which took them down with little difficulty.

Overall, the cache of minerals they found was completely worth the short excursion. In addition to the nessesary platinum, they had acquired quite a significant amount of iridium and palladium. The palladium could be put to use immediately. During the construction of the Normandy, improving the armor plating hadn't been a priority (Cerberus resources were stretched to the limit replicating the advanced warship as it was). In the late stages of the project, however, Jacob had been researching an asari developed armor plating to supplement their regular ablative armor. The Silaris heavy ship armor was nearly unsurpassed in strength because its central material, carbon nanotube sheets woven with diamond Chemical Vapor Deposition, were crushed by mass effect fields into super-dense layers able to withstand extreme temperatures. That process also compensates for the diamond's brittleness.

In short, their armor would be a lot better if they added this upgrade. Now that they had the necessary raw materials, they could take a day or two the next time they docked to have it retrofitted. Miranda made a mental note check for the nearest Cord-Hislop Aerospace facility so that they could stop there to have the upgrade installed. After loading the crates into the Normandy's cargo hold (it took several trips with the shuttle and the help of a half dozen crewmen, as the Normandy SR-2's significantly larger mass made it very difficult for it to land on worlds with normal gravity) they departed to head back to Omega. The Illusive man had apparently arranged a contract with a very experienced mercenary named Zaeed Massani, and he was on Omega waiting to join the crew. The condition for his assistance (in addition to his fee) was help on a mission he had been contracted to complete before he was approached by Cerberus.

* * *

On the way back to Omega, Shepard stopped by Miranda's office.

"Have you taken a look at the supplies we liberated from Eclipse?" Shepard asked, walking through the doorway.

"Yes, and there was enough platinum to facilitate our transaction with the research lab. They should have a working model ready for us in a few days." As she spoke, Shepard moved to lean on the wall in front of her desk.

"Sounds good. We still have a few more dossiers to knock off the list in the meantime."

"I have to admit, I'm impressed Shepard. So far things have gone exceptionally well. As far as Cerberus operations go, this is one the best I've been a part of."

"Maybe that's because this isn't a Cerberus operation." Either Shepard was delusional, or just stubborn.

"Maybe not to you, but I report directly to the Illusive Man, and I'm here because he wants me to be. Cerberus gave you a second chance Commander, maybe you should do the same for us." Miranda posited.

"In my experience, people aren't as loyal as you seem to be to just an abstract doctrine. What did Cerberus do for you?"

Miranda wasn't sure that was something she wanted to share with Shepard, or anyone who didn't already know for that matter. "It's a long story."

"I've got time, unless you don't want to tell it." Shepard seemed to be immune to deflections. Whether his interest was genuine or not, Miranda's past was hers alone, and she wasn't ready to let Shepard in on the whole of it. Seeing that he almost certainly wasn't willing to let go of this so easily, however, she decided to tell him a small part of the story.

"Do you remember how I told you I was genetically altered?" Shepard nodded. "Well, that wasn't my choice. My father… created me. He's a very influential man and very controlling. He didn't want a daughter. He wanted a dynasty. I ran away as soon as I was old and brave enough. I went to Cerberus because I knew they would protect me."

"You seem perfectly capable of looking out for yourself. Why did you need Cerberus?" _It wasn't just about me._ Miranda thought.

"My father invested a great deal in his dynasty. It wasn't a matter of just leaving. I knew he would continue to pursue his… investments." She hoped the term would be abstract enough for him to ignore the plural. She wasn't sure why, but lying outright to Shepard just wouldn't have sat well with her.

"How exactly does one go about seeking asylum with a clandestine group like Cerberus? I don't imagine they have a P.O. Box." Shepard seemed to be fond of archaic terminology.

"Ironically, my father had been a financial backer of Cerberus since their start. I found one of their intermediaries to contact in his own files."

"You weren't concerned they would just hand you back to him?" Shepard queried.

"I convinced them I was worth more than his money. It seems they agreed."

"You talk about yourself like you're just a tool to be used, by your father, by Cerberus."

This conversation was becoming a lot more personal than Miranda had anticipated. And yet she found she continued to talk. "Maybe. I like to know where I fit in the world. It helps me find meaning in how I was created."

"You are who you are, Miranda, you don't need to make excuses for it."

"That's easy for you to say. We were both engineered for greatness, Shepard. The difference is you were great before we rebuilt you, I'm great because of it." Again Miranda found she was telling Shepard more than she had intended. How did he do that?

"That's bull. By that logic I would owe my successes to random patterns of genetics. What matters isn't what you start with. It's what you do with it. That's who you are. That's what makes you great." Shepard's gaze was steady, and Miranda didn't hear any insincerity in his voice.

"That's kind of you. I'm not sure I believe you, but thanks for saying it."

Shepard seemed to be sizing her up. "On a mission like this, there won't be any room for doubt. I hope you'll be ready."

"I will, Commander." Why did she suddenly care what he thought?

Shepard nodded approvingly. "Good, I'll leave you to it." He turned and left a somewhat conflicted Miranda sitting behind her desk.

That conversation sure didn't go as planned. Miranda had become aware that Shepard had a knack for getting people to open up, but she hadn't thought it would extend to her. She would need to be more careful from now on. If he got under her skin, she might lose sight of why she was here, and that could prove disastrous. She just needed to stay focused. That wasn't so hard, was it?

* * *

**Author Notes:**

Heh, does Miranda want to get to know Shepard or keep him at a distance? Make up your mind, woman! *realizes he's essentially yelling at himself, goes and sits in a corner for a while*

Moving on… I thought it was strange in the game that you pay 50,000 platinum (they never do say what unit that is… is it grams or tonnes?) for a device that basically just makes Shepard's face prettier. So I decided to add a few points to this, explaining why it needed platinum instead of credits, tying it in with the upgrades you can give Shepard and his squad (hardened skin weave, etc), and even explaining where they get the platinum with a side quest present in the game (rather than them just shooting probes at planets that magically teleport the minerals to their cargo hold, that would be silly :P). Truly I am a master of weaving together gibberish into a semi-cohesive mess.

To anyone concerned that Shepard's characterization seems a bit… varied from chapter to chapter, that's mostly intentional, and a resolution is forthcoming (eventually). Also, the hamster is not gone for good!

Finally, not all missions will be summarized like the recruitment missions for Garrus and Mordin were, but I didn't have anything for Miranda and Shepard's characterization worth writing out those missions in detail, so I let Miranda summarize them (always fun to write in first person).

Tune in next week for the next chapter (if you have a radio or analog television capable of interpreting web pages that is).


	6. Chapter 5: Zorya

Just a quick note: as this is the first chapter with Zaeed there will be slightly more volatile language. I'm not going to change the rating, but consider yourself warned if you find "colorful" language offensive.

* * *

**Chapter Five: Zorya**

Miranda was already having difficulty figuring Shepard out, but on Zorya she got to see an entirely new side of the Commander, and one she wasn't particularly eager to see again.

Shortly before he was hired by Cerberus, Zaeed Massani had taken a mission to go to Zorya and liberate an Eldfell-Ashland refinery from the Blue Suns, who were occupying it. What they were doing there was unknown, and mostly irrelevant to the mission. All they needed to do was get there, oust the mercs, and free the workers they were holding hostage. For a ground team consisting of Zaeed, Shepard, Jacob, and the recently recovered Garrus (and Miranda herself of course) this shouldn't have proven to be to be too difficult.

The early stages of the mission had gone smoothly. They landed a ways back from the facility in the shuttle, and made their way through the jungle surrounding it. On the way they encountered and eliminated a mercenary patrol, and used one of their radios to tap into the Blue Sun's communications. As they bypassed the control panel on a bridge to cross a small chasm, the enemy Commander broadcasted orders on their newly acquired frequency.

"This is Commander Santiago. If any of you retreat while the intruders are still alive, I'll kill you myself."

"Vido." Zaeed snorted derisively in recognition. "Sounds like he hasn't changed."

Shepard asked the obvious question, "I get the feeling you have a past with this Vido, care to elaborate?"

"I knew he was a sadistic bastard back when we started the Blue Suns. The Suns only got meaner after he staged his little coup twenty years ago. So yeah, we have a past."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing that you founded the Blue Suns?" Shepard queried with a sideways glance at Miranda. Seems he had started reading her dossiers after all. The short answer was that they didn't know before now. His records had shown that he'd worked for the Blue Suns for a period, but they didn't state in what capacity, or why he left.

"Because it's not common knowledge. Vido wiped me out of the records." That would do it. Mercs weren't known for their tidy book keeping at the best of times. It would be relatively simple to erase a single member from their charter.

"He ran the books, I led the men. Worked real well for a while. Then Vido decided to start hiring Batarians." Zaeed looked disgusted. "Cheaper labor he said. Goddamn terrorists, I said."

Shepard crossed his arms, "Twenty years is a long time to hold a grudge."

"A grudge?" Zaeed suddenly stiffened. "Vido turned my men against me. He paid six of them to restrain me while he put a gun to my head and pulled the trigger." He leaned forward, closing the space between Shepard and himself. To his credit, Shepard didn't so much as flinch. Miranda noted out of the corner of her eye that Garrus had tightened his grip on his assault rifle.

"For twenty years, I've seen that bastard every time I closed my eyes. Every time I sighted down on a target. Every time I heard a gunshot." Zaeed backed down a bit, but his voice lost none of its menace. "So don't you call that a goddamn grudge."

Shepard - unimpressed by the outburst - raised an eyebrow, "You survived a gunshot to the head?"

Whatever the intent, the comment did serve to deflate the old merc somewhat, "Yeah. And you survived your ship getting disintegrated. A stubborn enough person can survive just about anything." He chuckled coldly, "Rage is a hell of an anesthetic."

In all actuality, Shepard hadn't survived his ship being disintegrated, and his current state of living could be attributed to advanced medical science and the crack team Miranda had assembled rather than rage, but she kept both those facts to herself. Even though he seemed calm enough at the time, in retrospect, Miranda suspected that this was the moment she should have guessed that Zaeed would jeopardize their mission. It wouldn't have taken long for her suspicions to be confirmed.

They crossed the now extended bridge and traversed a narrow path through the jungle towards the gatehouse, the only viable entrance to the facility. Chatter on their comms indicated that the mercs were massing there as well. Upon the opening of the gatehouse door, their little squad was met with heavy opposition, but it seemed the merc Commander had an interest in talking before attempting to gun them down.

"Zaeed Massani. So you finally tracked me down." Vido paced back and forth slowly on an elevated platform above the main gate. Around him were more than a dozen mercs, and if what they had overheard on the comms was anything to go by, more were on their way. The distance between the two groups was fairly large, but they weren't out of range of the mercs fire. While the arrogant bastard soliloquized, Shepard signaled the squad to the take the opportunity to advance.

"Vido." Zaeed looked like he could barely contain himself. His hand was already reaching for his assault rifle, but Vido cut him off.

"Don't be stupid Zaeed. I have a whole company of bloodthirsty bastards behind me, ready to kill or be killed on my command." Miranda suspected the latter would require some convincing for mercs who worked for money exclusively, but it was probably best not to poke holes in the grandstanding of a lunatic.

"Actually take your shot. Give my men a reason to put you down like the mad dog you are. Again." Shepard, Garrus, and Jacob had almost reached cover - with Miranda just behind - when Zaeed decided to take things into his own hands, whipping out his rifle and laying down fire on the mercenaries above while strafing to the left. The rest of the squad dived into cover to avoid the return fire from the Blue Suns. One of Zaeed's shots had ruptured some sort of fuel pipe, which was spewing flammable gas all over the upper reaches of the catwalk. Zaeed switched to incendiary rounds on the run, and with a concentrated burst, ignited the gas.

The ensuing explosion blew a few of the mercs off the catwalk to land with sickening crunches more than 40 feet below. The remaining mercs were scattered, attempting to avoid the flames enveloping their previously advantageous perch. Shepard took advantage of the chaos and began barking orders.

"Jacob, lift those two out of cover on the right. Garrus, pick them off while they're exposed. I'll lay down suppressing fire on the group on the left. Miranda-" Miranda never found out what her task was to be, because at that moment Shepard noticed that Zaeed wasn't done. The grizzled veteran was pounding on a pressure valve with the butt of his rifle. Each blow spun the wheel a little more. Shepard yelled towards him.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Zaeed ignored him and maintained his steady rhythm. As the wheel turned more and more, a loud pressurized whine filled the room. As realization hit him, Shepard's eyes widened.

"Take cover!" He yelled, pulling Jacob - who had been about to toss a biotic field at the target Shepard had indicated - down behind some machinery. The rest of the squad quickly followed suit. Not a moment too soon, as Zaeed's efforts finally bore fruit. Flames danced along the length of the pipe, causing new breaches across its entire span. Seconds later it felt like the whole room ignited as the pipe ruptured explosively engulfing the remaining mercenaries in fire and blasting the door off of its hinges.

After the cacophony had died down, they stepped out of cover to survey the results. The way in was open, but as a result of the damage, the entire facility was in peril. Flames were billowing up from the next building over and spreading fast. They could hear screams as mercs and workers alike became trapped by the rampaging inferno.

Shepard marched on Zaeed. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking we needed to open the door. Mission accomplished."

"You've compromised the entire facility! You're risking the lives of the people we came here to save."

"Let 'em burn. I'm here for Vido. If you wanna waste your time playing hero that's your- oof!" Shepard backhanded Zaeed full across the face. Miranda raised her gun, concerned, and saw Garrus do the same. Now was not the best time or place to start another fight.

"When we're on a mission, I'm in command. That means you follow my lead. Pull another stunt like that, and I'll knock you the hell out and leave you to the flames. Clear?"

Miranda seriously thought Zaeed might pull his gun on Shepard, but after a moment he acquiesced. "Fine. But before we leave here Vido dies. He escapes, and I'm holding you responsible." Zaeed was glaring daggers at Shepard.

"I'm certainly not planning on letting him get away, but thanks to you we have a burning refinery to save." Shepard left Zaeed with a lingering glare before motioning to the rest of the squad to fall in.

They moved through the now open main doors and entered the facility. The problem facing them became quickly apparent. An industrial refinery like this one had a two part system to deal with fires. First it would automatically lock down all sectors to prevent the blaze from spreading, then engage extinguishers throughout the facility. The first part seemed to be working. The second… not so much. As a result the workers were trapped in one section of the facility with no way out, and the fires were approaching fast. Not that they would burn to death; suffocation from smoke inhalation was much more likely, but Miranda doubted they would find that comforting.

Complicating matters were the several dozen Blue Suns mercs still in the facility, with hostile intentions towards any not their own. As they ascended to the upper levels of the refinery - towards the master control room - they ran into a few pockets of the mercs, but in all the confusion Shepard and co. made short work of them. It didn't take them long to reach their destination. Bypassing the lock on the door, Shepard waved the squad in.

"Jacob, Zaeed, cover the door. Garrus, Miranda, you're with me, let's get this thing working. A cursory glance at the control room revealed the extent of the damage. Several beams which had previously been part of the ceiling were now lodged firmly in the remainder of the control panels. Shepard assessed the damage briefly, then issued orders.

"Garrus, help me get the debris of the controls. Miranda, get me a scan of the systems to see what we need to fix." They both complied, Garrus grabbing the other end of the largest piece of debris along with Shepard and hoisting it out of the way. Miranda waved her omni-tool over the smashed panels, and after a moment, a holographic projection of the machinery floated above her arm. After a moment examining the projection, she concluded that in spite of the damage the control station had sustained, the problem with the extinguishers wasn't on their end. The fuel pipe Zaeed had set off ran throughout the entire facility, and as it had blown all along its length it had damaged much of the refinery's infrastructure. The extinguisher systems were among the worst impaired. Fixing the controls wouldn't help if there were no systems capable of carrying out their commands. Miranda relayed the information to the Commander.

Shepard considered briefly, "Then we need to override the lockdown to let the workers out. Can we do that from here?"

Miranda nodded tersely, "Yes, but the uplink is disconnected from the controls. If you can reconnect it I can broadcast the override." She pointed at a set of wires with a clear break in the line in the upper corner of the room.

"Got it." Shepard ran over, climbing on top of a panel and engaging his omni-tool. "I think I can temporarily splice the connection with omni-gel, but it won't last long; be ready." Miranda called up the appropriate command on her omni-tool and indicated her readiness. Shepard carefully applied omni-gel to the break in the uplink cables and at his signal, Miranda broadcasted the override. Sparks flew from the damaged wires and Shepard jumped back down.

"Did we get it? I don't think we'll get another shot."

Miranda carefully surveyed the data on her omni-tool. "Yes, the signal was sent. All doors that aren't too badly damaged have been unlocked. Any workers alive in the facility will be able to evacuate."

Zaeed yelled from the door, "Fucking fantastic, can we get Vido now?"

"Affirmative," Shepard replied, "our remaining objectives are to clear out the remaining mercenaries and exit the facility. Let's move"

The squad fell in line behind the Commander and they moved swiftly through the smoldering remains of the refinery. Below them they could see workers spilling out hanger doors into the jungle. A good portion of them had survived, it seemed.

What the mercs had been up to during their hiatus to the control room became quickly apparent as they entered a large processing warehouse only to be met with heavy fire from two YSMIR mechs supported by several combat engineers and about a dozen Blue Suns soldiers. Their small squad was pinned down by machine gun fire and a barrage of missiles from both the mechs and few Blue Suns heavy troopers.

Jacob yelled out over the din, "We need to move Commander, this is a kill box!"

"I know!" Shepard exclaimed. A shot rang out next to them and Garrus ducked back into cover, having dropped on the mercs with a well-executed potshot. Shepard gestured at Garrus and Zaeed, who both had their Snipers out. "If I give you two a few seconds, could you drop that machinery on one of those mechs?" They both glanced upwards and noticed that a bunch of heavyweight gear was affixed to the ceiling directly above one of the YSMIR mechs. Zaeed nodded for the both of them.

"Ok, three, two, one go!" Shepard conjured a spherical biotic barrier around the two, and they both stood and started to rain fire on the fixtures holding up the weighty ballast. Shepard grunted with exertion as shots and missiles began to impact the barrier, but he continued to hold it. Miranda and Jacob did their best to lay down suppressing fire on the mercs without exposed themselves. After a few tense seconds the combined fire of Garrus and Zaeed loosed the heavy equipment from the ceiling and it rained down on the unsuspecting mercenaries, taking out one of the YSMIR mechs and a pair of mercenaries standing near it. The pair of snipers ducked back into cover and Shepard relinquished the barrier with a groan.

Taking advantage of the momentary respite, the rest of the squad advanced, spreading out to rain a crossfire down on the mercs. They could finally use their elevated position to their advantage, and it showed on the quickly dwindling numbers of the mercs. The combined efforts of Garrus and Miranda took down the remaining YSMIR mech with a combination of overloads and warp fields. Jacob exposed mercs with his biotics, and they were swiftly dispatched by Zaeed who had found a perch overlooking the whole of the battlefield. After a moment of recovery, Shepard joined in, picking off two mercs with his modified Carnifex heavy pistol.

With all the Blue Suns dead or fleeing, the team moved through the hanger, scrounging thermal clips off of the remains strewn throughout the facility to supplement their diminishing supply. As they approached the hanger doors that exited the facility, they heard the unmistakable sound of a gunship starting its engines. Prying open the doors, Zaeed burst through, only to watch the gunship containing the remaining mercs, along with his nemesis, take off into the distance.

Zaeed roared in frustration, firing his rifle at the departing gunship until the thermal clip overheated and the weapon could do nothing but click helplessly.

"Shepard," the veteran whipped around pointing his weapon at the Commander, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was empty. Garrus, Jacob, and Miranda brought their own guns to bear, and for the first time Shepard drew his own pistol on Zaeed as well. "I fucking warned you Shepard."

That was as far as he got before the loud crack of sheering metal rang out across the landing pad. Everyone looked up to see a crane's supports snapping and twisting as it struggled to cope with its own weight after the damage the fire had inflicted. Seconds later it gave out and came crashing down amongst the squad, sending everyone diving for cover. After the dust had cleared, the squad returned to their feet checking to see that no one else had been hit by the falling debris.

"Get this goddamn thing off of me." Zaeed had been hit. His lower body was pinned beneath an I-beam that had until recently been part of the crane's support structure.

Shepard held up hand to stop Jacob, who had moved to assist him before crossing his arms, standing in full view of Zaeed. "No."

"What?" Zaeed growled.

"First we talk about what happened here." Shepard was speaking evenly, but he seemed to be simmering underneath his veneer of calm

"Talk? You just cost me twenty years of my life!" Zaeed practically spat the words out. Amazing how the man could radiate fury while completely helpless.

"No. I cost you your revenge."

"Same goddamn difference."

"The hell it is! You see that?" Shepard gestured at the still smoldering factory. "We got most of the workers out, but some of them still died because of your vendetta. Workers we came here to free. If you think vengeance is that important, should I kill you for them? Do they deserve justice?"

"The fuck do you want from me?" The man seemed broken in more ways than one.

"You didn't want justice, you wanted a man dead. But that wasn't what we came here to do. We came here to complete a mission, and your revenge got in the way. That's. Not. How. This. Works." Shepard's voice was like molten steel.

Zaeed was dead silent staring at the Commander.

"You've got two options left. Fall in line, or be left behind. Which will it be? Are you with me, or do I leave you in the hell you made for yourself?"

The silence seemed to last for an eternity before Zaeed finally relented. "As far as I'm concerned, you still owe me that bastard's head. But for the rest of our mission… I'm your man."

"Don't forget it." Shepard nodded at Garrus, and between them they hoisted the support beam off of the mercenary. Miranda half expected him to lunge for his gun, but he didn't. Something in Shepard's tirade seemed to have resonated with him. Either that or he saw that here and now, the odds were against him. She hoped it was the former. Still, it would be prudent to monitor Zaeed for a while. The last thing they needed was him taking out his frustrations on Shepard sometime in the future.

Speaking of Shepard, as they returned to the Normandy in stony silence on the shuttle, Miranda had time to reflect once again on her unfathomable Commander. Of all the sides she'd seen of the man, his diatribe against Zaeed had felt the most genuine. If she had to pick a word to describe the Commander's conduct on the mission on Zorya, it would be uncompromising. He had taken a firm stance against Zaeed's reckless disregard for the lives of the workers from the very beginning, and when pressed at the end had presented him with an ultimatum. Whether he would have really followed through was a matter for contemplation. If he would have, then perhaps Shepard's methodology wasn't so far removed from Cerberus' after all. And if that were the case, winning him over might not be as impossible a task at it had seemed not so long ago. Only time would tell.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I decided to split up this chapter (I originally had another section I was going to include that will now be in the next chapter) because I've been extremely busy the last week and a half, and will probably continue to be busy in the coming week. As such I wanted to make sure I got an update out, rather than making everyone wait another week. Besides, the more I tried to include, the more rushed I would become, and the quality of the writing would definitely suffer.

Anyway, in the original game, Zaeed's heel face turn at the end of the mission (if you do a paragon run) felt a little forced. I tried to improve upon that scene, as well as not planning to ignore that confrontation in the future (it will come up again).

There was a bit more action in this chapter, for those of you who like that sort of thing. I'm not averse to writing action scenes, but I feel their quality suffers if I describe in detail every single firefight in the game. As such, I'm trying to save heavily descriptive fights for moments where it's important to the story, but if people feel there needs to be more action per chapter, I might consider tweaking the ratio.


	7. Chapter 6: Large, Angry & Unhappy Things

Sorry for the lengthy hiatus. If it's any consolation, this chapter is pretty long as well. Before anyone complains, I know that I'm missing an oxford comma in the title for this chapter, but apparently there is a character limit that I was over by 3 (changed "and" to "&" and got rid of one comma). The title in bold below is the correct one. Enjoy!

**Chapter 6: Large, Angry, and Unhappy Things**

Another day, another mission. In their quest for information on the Collectors, Cerberus had tracked all those that they could find who had made deals with the repulsive insectoids. Some turned out to be dead ends, some even literally so. Amongst the bodies and disappearances the Illusive Man had managed to get in contact with a Krogan Warlord by the name of Okeer. He was willing to trade Intel he had acquired on the Collectors during their dealings in exchange for extraction from his current location. That was where they were headed now: Korlus.

Miranda skimmed through the brief once more. Apparently the Korlus Torist Board had attempted to rebrand their planet as the "Recycling Center of the Galaxy," but the enduring adage of "A garbage scow with a climate" seemed much more popular. And apt. The biggest business on the planet was the recycling of decommissioned or junked spacecraft into their component parts. Unfortunately, a few hundred years' worth of outdated spaceships had clearly put them over processing capacity, as large areas - sometimes several miles across - were littered with the remains of ships. In these mechanical wastelands scavengers, mercenaries, and other lowlifes thrived, and did their best to escalate Korlus' already staggering murder rates from their current spot of second highest murder per capita in the Terminus Systems. An impressive feat, to say the least.

The full combat team was sitting ready in the shuttle, as the area Okeer had flagged for his extraction was crawling with mercenary activity. Blue Suns specifically. To Miranda's dismay, Zaeed was present and accounted for, a decision she had tried to get Shepard to repeal prior to their departure to no avail.

* * *

_Earlier_

Shepard was sitting on a bed in the Med-Bay being checked over by Dr. Chakwas before he left for the shuttle when Miranda entered. They had acquired the experimental augmentation device a few days ago, and after a thorough examination and stress testing by Mordin, Miranda, and the Doctor, they deemed it safe and functional. Its first use was a relatively simple procedure to create a synthetic protein overlay to cover Shepard's scars and prevent their exacerbation. The "operation" (it was hardly invasive enough to be deemed such) had gone exceedingly well, and the Doctor was just performing her last checks before allowing Shepard back into the action.

Miranda decided to wait for her to finish. A moment later she changed her mind and addressed Shepard while he was still being checked over.

"Commander, I just got your squad selection for the Korlus extraction."

Shepard glanced at her with his eyes, trying not to move his head much as Dr. Chakwas was still examining him. "At a guess, I'd say you're not concerned that Garrus is on it."

"I don't think it's wise to have Zaeed with you in a combat scenario so soon after your… confrontation on Zorya. It adds an unnecessary element of risk."

"On the contrary, I think a 'combat scenario' is just what he needs. The longer he stays cooped up on the ship, the more frustrated he's going to get."

"So you're risking the mission to let Zaeed blow off steam?" Miranda inquired incredulously.

Shepard shook his head, earning him a stern glance from the Doctor. "If we want to determine his continued viability as an asset, we need to do so as soon as possible. We're not going to learn that with shrink sessions or security footage."

If Miranda didn't know better she'd swear Shepard was spying on her. Her first step upon returning to the Normandy after Zorya was to ask Kelly to check in on Zaeed occasionally as casually as possible. Miranda had also been keeping careful tabs on his movements and activities with the Normandy's suite of surveillance cameras, ever vigilant for a sign that he wasn't as satisfied with the resolution of his mission as he claimed to be. She resolved to check Shepard's presence in the Normandy's computers when she next had spare time.

"So I'm sure you'd agree," Shepard continued, "that a situation on _this_ mission is preferable to an incident at a much more critical juncture, would you not?"

Miranda was forced to concede that Shepard's reasoning was sound, but she didn't have to like it. "If that's your decision, I'll get everyone to the shuttle."

"I'll be ready to depart…" he trailed off looking at Dr. Chakwas.

"…shortly." She finished.

"I'll be ready to depart shortly." Shepard echoed. Miranda acknowledged the update and left to gather the squad.

* * *

_Back on the Shuttle_

Sound reasoning or not, Miranda would be keeping one eye on the grizzled old bounty hunter the whole mission. Her focus on him was such that she almost missed Shepard's last minute brief to the squad.

"Dossier doesn't say whether or not Okeer is on this planet by choice. Assume hostiles. Stay low and move fast. Let's try to get in and out as quickly as possible. Understood?"

A smattering of acknowledgements from the squad indicated their readiness, and after a last check of munitions and equipment they disembarked the shuttle at what their scans had indicated was the outskirts of some sort of outpost. Immediately upon their arrival they were greeted by a tannoy system over which a female mercenary was addressing her troops.

"There is only one measure of success: kill or be killed! Perfection is your goal."

Garrus chuckled, "Broadcasting orders over loudspeaker? Charming."

"Seems like the Blue Suns leadership has gone to hell since I left." Zaeed observed.

Shepard cut off the speculation, "Stay focused. We're looking for a Krogan Warlord."

The woman wasn't done lecturing, however. "Being hired is merely the beginning. You must earn your place in the might army we are building."

Even Shepard rolled his eyes at that one. Talk about melodrama. As the squad advanced they soon had more immediate concerns.

"Observation post ahead. They look tense." Jacob reported.

The surprise attack inflicted on them by the Normandy's squad probably didn't do anything to improve their temperament. After a momentary exchange of gunfire (which the mercenaries took the worst of) only one of their number was left standing. Or rather limping. As they approached they could hear his muttering as he clutched at his face, seemingly oblivious to the encroaching enemies.

"Shit. Shit. It won't stop bleeding. I'm gonna… I'm gonna… son of a bitch!"

"Doesn't look that bad, actually." Miranda observed dryly.

"He doesn't need to know that." Shepard added before moving forward to address the fallen mercenary.

The merc was talking half to them and half to himself as they drew closer. "I knew it wasn't berserkers. Not at range. You're mercs. Or Alliance. I'm not… I'm not telling you anything."

None of them were convinced; a born soldier this guy wasn't. Closer examination revealed he hadn't even been hit. In fact, it looked like he had tried to retreat, tripped, and broken his nose on a bit of protruding metal. Lots of blood, pretty much no permanent damage. Not that you would know it from the way he was panting and moaning.

Shepard crossed his arms, "You're not in much of a position to give ultimatums. You overestimate your importance to me. If you aren't helpful, we'll just waste you and move on to the next group. So, got anything to say?" Not for the first time, Miranda wondered if Shepard was prepared to follow through on the threats he was making. She still didn't know the answer.

His willingness to follow through was irrelevant however, as the mercenary folded. "Son of a… I just, I don't know anything. I just shoot the overflow from the labs. The old krogan up there, he's really been cleaning house lately. Jedore hired him to make her an army, but the krogan he creates are insane, so we use them for live ammo training. It's all crap; I don't get paid enough to goddamn bleed out!"

At that moment, the merc's radio buzzed as his superior asked for a report on the berserk krogan who were apparently running amok. Under pressure from Shepard, the "wounded" merc gave his officer bad Intel sending them out of the Normandy's squad's path. Less resistance once they entered the compound, then. The Commander attempted to get more information out of him, but in a need-to-know organization like the Blue Suns, this poor grunt evidently didn't need-to-know anything. Shepard decided he wasn't even worth killing and left him with a closing remark.

"If you start limping now, you might find a shady spot before you bleed out."

With wide eyes the merc did as he was told, moving away from their group to the chorus of, "Shit, shit… shit!"

Miranda couldn't resist a small grin, "The scare was a nice touch."

The corner of Shepard's mouth twitched, "I thought so. Come on our Warlord is somewhere in the lab."

Apparently still unaware of their group's presence, the woman on the loudspeakers continued to drone on at irregular intervals. "Training is part of your contract. Failure to perform means liquidation, legal and otherwise."

"This bitch is just asking for a bullet to the head," remarked Zaeed darkly.

Hoping to get some actual useful Intel, Shepard cannibalized one of the dead scout's transmitters to tap them into the Blue Sun's communications. Immediately they caught some comm traffic.

"Team four, do you read? Team four!"

It seems this team was missed after all. Time to get moving while they still had the element of surprise. They passed and eliminated a few more mercenary crews, but resistance was minimal. Their progress was noticed by the mercenaries however.

"Comm, tell Jedore we have a problem. Patrols are going dark. Either the krogan are pushing, or we're being raided!"

Jedore. That must be the lovely woman on the tannoy, and presumably the commander of this garrison. Her orders quickly became unnecessary as the next mercenary patrol they encountered had the presence of mind to get off a transmission before they were wiped out.

"Code Six! Offworld presence! Shift fire from the krogan! Hostiles in the Compound!"

To their surprise, they weren't alone in firing on the mercenaries. A krogan in full armor was pecking away at them from behind cover with a shotgun. Once they were all down it turned towards their group and walked forward cautiously. Most of the squad raised their guns but Shepard gestured for them to be lowered. The krogan got quite close before appearing to… sniff the Commander. Then it spoke.

"You… are different. New. You don't smell like this world. Seven night cycles, and I have felt only the need to kill. But you… something makes me speak."

Miranda raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "He's only a week old?"

"They must breed them full-size, ready to kill. Not much improvement over regular mercs if they need training," theorized Shepard.

The krogan appeared confused, "Bred… to kill. No. I kill because my blood and bone tell me to. But it's not why I was flushed from glass mother."

The krogan continued talking. His halting style of speech made him difficult to understand, but from what they could gather, Okeer had been breeding krogan, and was using some sort of system to educate them while they were being grown. For some reason, unknown to the krogan before them, he and hundreds of others had been deemed imperfect, and their education halted. Was it possible that Okeer was working to cure the genophage like Saren, through cloning and genetic alteration? The krogan was unsure (as he was on most things) and after a while they realized they weren't going to get any more out of him and decided to move on.

Before they left, the krogan shifted an enormous piece of scrap metal out of their path, commenting, "You fleshy thing are slow when big things are in your way," before returning to his lonely vigil, muttering something about having purpose. Perplexed, the squad continued on.

Descending into the bowels of the starcraft graveyard, the team heard roars, gunfire, and shouting. As they were about to round a corner they heard a Blue Suns soldier yelling, "They're lose, run for your damn life! They're all lose!" then running into view. Before any of them could put him down, a shotgun blast to the back from something around the bend did the job for them.

Carefully entering the miasma of twisted metal and narrow walkways, their squad was assaulted by the berserk krogan referred to by the recently deceased mercenary. Obviously the comparatively neutral one they had run into before was the exception to the rule. While they fought their way through their perilous surroundings, Jedore chimed in over the loudspeaker again.

"Who authorized that krogan release? Okeer? I will have order in my compound!" She really came across more as a petulant child than a mercenary commander, but either way she was going down.

More chatter came through across the comm channel from her subordinates. "Krogan took down the grid! We're blind and getting hit on all sides! Where are the heavies?"

The Blue Suns were so distracted that they were barely able to muster even a token resistance as Shepard's team advanced. It was apparent based on the chatter they were getting over the radio that the ones fighting the krogan were getting the worst of it, however. The mercenaries seemed to be getting desperate.

"Krogan on our six! Copy, god damn it! Where's Jedore and her personal guard?"

Her reply over the loudspeaker was less than reassuring. "Jedore does not pay for failure! Do your jobs, I want them dead!" _Did she really just refer to herself in the __third person?_ Miranda wondered to herself.

The mercenary manning the radio obviously decided that someone competent needed to be issuing the orders, and took matters into his own hands. "Concentrate on the krogan charge, or _we're_ all dead! Who was the genius that gave them arms?"

True to form, Jedore couldn't resist continuing her rant. "I paid for competence! Kill the trespassers! I will deal with the traitorous Okeer!"

Judging by the fact that they met almost no resistance for some time the Blue Suns appeared to have focused fire on the krogan, confirmed by the radio a moment later. "Berserkers are going down, but the outsider commandoes are still incoming! Repeat, still incoming! I need everyone out of the labs to fight this! Every floor, every outpost! Move!"

Unfortunately for them, there weren't enough Suns left in the whole compound to stop their squad.

The beleaguered mercenary comm officer piped up again, obviously agitated. "What do you mean Jedore's holding the mechs? She'll lose all her toys if we don't get backup."

Jedore was clearly delusional at this point. "No more! I command that they be killed! What is so hard to understand? There are five of them. Five! Anything can be killed if you do your damned jobs!"

The mercenary lieutenant was clearly just as fed up with her as Shepard and Co. "Jedore! Damn it, someone get her off the speakers and out here! Concentrate fire on my position! Concentrate on – Argh!" It was just as well. If he had survived he probably would have been having a hell of a talk with whatever the Blue Suns equivalent of an HR department was. With most of the mercenaries either dead or in disarray, they finally reached the lab at the center of the compound. After ascending a short staircase they emerged into the lab, and were greeted by the most impressive looking krogan they'd seen so far.

He addressed them remarkably casually, "Here you are! I've watched your progress. It's about time. The batteries on these tanks will not wait while you play with these idiotic mercs."

Shepard stepped forward. "I take it you're Okeer. You don't seem particularly caged… or grateful that I'm here."

Okeer waved the implication aside, "You may claim to be here to help, but the formerly deceased Shepard is not a sign of gentle change." On that, he and Miranda could agree. Shepard had quite the reputation.

Okeer appeared to smirk at Shepard's reaction. "Surprised? All krogan should know you. Or have you forgotten your actions on Virmire?"

Shepard crossed his arms defiantly. "I did what I had to do. Under Saren, those krogan were a threat to everyone, the rest of the krogan included."

The warlord held up his hands in conciliation. "But I approve. Saren's pale horde were not true krogan. Numbers alone are nothing. The mistake of an outsider. One that these mercenaries have also made. I gave their leader my rejects for her army. But she grows impatient. It's time for you to take me out of here."

Getting impatient with the old krogan's flair for the dramatic, Miranda interjected, "We're here for your data on the Collectors; we couldn't care less about your problems."

"I see, yes… Collector attacks have increased. A human concern." Okeer was unfazed by her annoyance. "I acquired the knowledge to create one pure soldier. With that I will inflict the greatest insult an enemy can suffer: to be ignored."

The mad scientist explained that he wasn't seeking a cure for the genophage, but a template for the perfect krogan. With it he planned to return the krogan to their former glory, not through strength of numbers, but by making the krogan they had more powerful. After hundreds of failures he had finally succeeded. The tank beside him held his "one pure soldier" from which he would work to correct the coddling he believed the genophage had inspired. His speech was interrupted by another transmission by Jedore. With almost all the mercenaries dead, Miranda wondered who she thought she was addressing.

"I traced the krogan release. Okeer, of course. I'm calling blank slate on this project. Gas these commandoes and start over from Okeer's data. Flush the tanks."

Okeer was taken aback. "She's that weak willed? She'll destroy my legacy with a damned valve? Shepard! You want information on the Collectors? Stop her. She'll try to access contaminants in the storage bay. I will stay here, and do what must be done."

Ignoring how ominous that sounded, Shepard acknowledged the ultimatum and took off with the rest of the squad in tow to take down Jedore. Following a short corridor, they emerged to find Jedore in a room full of empty tanks keying commands into her omni-tool. She was flanked by a pair of YSMIR heavy mechs, whose gun arms started spinning up the moment their squad entered the room. As usual, Shepard was barking orders in an instant.

"Take cover behind the machinery! Garrus, find a vantage point. Miranda, Jacob, you're with me; concentrate fire on the mechs. Zaeed, deal with Jedore."

The battle hardened vet grinned wickedly, "It'll be a goddamn pleasure."

The firefight that followed was intense, but brief. Having spent several missions working together, Garrus, Jacob, Shepard, and Miranda were turning into a well-oiled machine. Shepard's commands were barely even needed as they anticipated each other's movements and took down first one mech, then the other, as they had several times before. Zaeed made short work of his target as well. A disruptor shot from his rifle took out the mercenary captain's shield when she was stupid enough to try changing cover. He then made use of a trio of incendiary grenades to flush her out of the cover she had moved into, and a second rifle shot to the head put her down for good. For all her grandstanding, she hadn't put up much of a fight. Their triumph was short lived, however, as a klaxon sounded from the lab above them.

Miranda swore, "Alarms in the lab! Damn it, what's Okeer doing back there?"

Unexpectedly, EDI chimed in, "Shepard, the lab alarms coincided with a systems failure. The remaining lab systems are unprotected, and I have gained limited access. According to lab scanners, the room is flooded with toxins, and Okeer's life signs are fading rapidly. I recommend haste."

With a sense of trepidation the group quickly retraced their steps back to the lab, and as they got closer they heard a VI broadcasting a message on a loop.

"Contamination detected, emergency vent in process. Contamination detected, emergency vent in process."

At the door to the lab they had to wait a few agonizing seconds for the vent to finish and the door to open. Moving carefully in, they saw Okeer's body slumped over his terminal next to his prototype. A message from him was playing on the screen.

"…if I knew why Collectors wanted humans, I would tell you. But everything was consumed in this soldier, this… grunt. My legacy will live on…"

The team stood in ponderous silence before Miranda voiced the question they were all thinking, "Okeer wasted his life to save this single krogan?"

"He must be something special," commented Shepard. "If this krogan is the last link Okeer had to the Collectors, we have to take him with us. Otherwise this extraction was for nothing." The Commander opened communications with the Normandy. "Joker, Okeer is a no-go, but we have a package that needs retrieval." He glanced at the krogan slumbering in the tank, then added, "And he's a big one."

* * *

Back aboard the Normandy, Shepard entered the comm room ready for a debriefing, only to find Miranda and Jacob in the middle of an argument, of sorts.

"Bringing in the krogan for study makes sense, but I have concerns about waking it." Miranda started with exasperation before Shepard could even open his mouth.

Jacob was no less exasperated. "Yeah, you've said that a few times now."

Ignoring the tone of his voice, she continued, "A normal krogan is dangerous; this one was created - and likely educated - by a madman."

Determined to get a word in edgewise, Shepard quipped, "I see everyone is enjoying the new paperweight. Concerns?"

Miranda started with the obvious, "We don't know anything about it, Commander."

"We know that _it's_ a _he_." Shepard retorted dryly, "And that whatever the _krogan_ consider a super soldier would be a worthwhile addition to our team. Presuming he doesn't go crazy and kill us all."

Miranda wasn't sure if she would rather he was joking or not. "Krogan fight well in close quarters. Perhaps awakening him in a confined space wouldn't be prudent."

"Cargo bay it is."

That wasn't what she had meant at all. "Commander-"

Shepard held up a hand to delay her objection "Listen, either he's a potential ally or a ticking time bomb. Either way, I want this sorted now. Alert all crew to clear out of the cargo bay."

Jacob saluted, then departed, clearly satisfied with the outcome of their discussion. Miranda on the other hand, wasn't.

"Don't you at least want backup?" she asked in desperation.

Shepard shook his head. "Too many people and he might think he's under attack. Our best chance is for me to approach on my own."

The commander began the walk to the elevator. Over his shoulder he added, "Don't worry, I'll try to avoid being head-butted. Wouldn't want to ruin my new face." How reassuring.

As she had found time and time again, protesting once Shepard had made up his mind was futile, so she retreated to her quarters to observe the proceedings from her terminal. As per instructions, all crew cleared out of the cargo bay, leaving Shepard alone with the canned krogan. Following a superfluous warning from EDI, he hit the release. The tank opened slowly. Liquid gushed out and the krogan fell down on to his knees, coughing and spewing up more of the tank fluid. He knelt there for what felt like a long while before slowing raising his head. With a roar he charged Shepard, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into a crate where he was pinned by the krogan's massive arm. Miranda was sorely tempted to rush to the elevator and to Shepard's aid, but she knew if the massive alien decided to snap Shepard's neck there was no way she could get there in time. Besides, Shepard had proven his ability to get out of tough spots already. He would be fine. She hoped.

There was a low exchange between the two. Miranda had to tune the surveillance feed to hear what they were saying. She caught that the krogan (who chose the name "Grunt" seemingly out of thin air) wanted a reason to fight. Shepard offered him a place on their crew. After a second's consideration "Grunt" agreed. There was no way it was that easy… did Shepard have hypnotic eyes?

"I'm glad you decided to listen to reason." Shepard said, and – switching camera angles – Miranda noticed for the first time, along with Grunt, that the commander had drawn his sidearm and had it pressed just over Grunt's primary heart. Once again he proved to be less naive then he seemed. Not that it would take much.

This revelation seemed to amuse the krogan. "Ha! Offer one hand but arm the other? Wise, Shepard, very wise." The krogan had just summed up Shepard in seven words. Maybe he wasn't as dumb as he looked either. Damn it. She wouldn't mind as much that Shepard so frequently disagreed with her if he didn't keep being proven right. It was beginning to get a bit frustrating, if she was perfectly honest.

Crisis averted (for now), Miranda remembered her resolution to check on Shepard's computer usage. The fact that he was still talking to the krogan and unlikely to return to his cabin anytime soon was a bonus. It didn't take her long to find the intrusion in her terminal now that she knew she was looking for one. Shepard had used the system she'd set up to monitor his terminal activity; she was able to mirror his terminal on her own. He'd merely reverse engineered the connection to give him access to hers. Clever little sod. After a quick check she determined her encrypted files, including reports to the Illusive Man and a few of her own personal files, were untouched. It didn't even appear that Shepard had tried to access them. Did he intend for her to find this? Was that the point, to show that Cerberus wasn't quite as all knowing and clandestine as it thought it was?

It was easy to forget that despite being a soldier, Shepard was extremely proficient technically. If it weren't for his biotics manifesting, he'd likely be in a non-combat support role, or perhaps intelligence. In the Alliance, all biotics were shipped off to careers in the Special Forces, where their unique talents wouldn't be wasted. A pity. With more training his hacking skills might have been impressive. She quickly eliminated the intrusion and locked a few of Shepard's terminal functions to prevent him putting it back up again. He'd notice, but there wasn't really much he could do about it, and as long as she did her job he wouldn't have an excuse to complain.

With that taken care of, Miranda slumped gratefully onto her bed. One thing about being on the Normandy; it kept you busy. She did her best to settle in. They had a journey of less than half a day to the last dossier on their list (although the Illusive Man was reviewing a few more potential candidates as well), and Miranda was determined to get at least some sleep before they arrived.

* * *

Miranda managed to get exactly no sleep before they arrived at Purgatory, a prison ship (or station, more accurately) in space, which was their next destination. She had tried, but after an hour or so of listless tossing and turning she'd abandoned the prospect and set about catching up on the backlog of paperwork she'd accumulated. Then she had decided to get a meal from the mess hall and brought it back to her cabin to eat while checking up on a personal matter she made sure to look into on a weekly basis. After that, to limber up after the hard work of a mission, she had done a session of yoga while listening to selections from Neilson's Symphonies No. 3 & 5. Moving back to her desk, she brought up and subsequently memorized all available information on their destination (Purgatory) as she did before every mission. Once she was sure she knew everything there was to know about the place, and their objectives, she moved – somewhat dazedly – to her bed to take another shot at a nap, only to find they were minutes away from arrival. Where had the time gone? A quick shot of coffee from the nearly cold pot in the mess hall was all she had time for before a message on her omni-tool from Shepard called her into the comm room. Curiously it was just Shepard and Garrus that awaited her, not the full team.

Shepard began immediately, "You've both read the brief?" Both Miranda and Garrus nodded. "Good, then you know we're here to pick up Jack, a powerful biotic Cerberus has encountered before, in hopes of leveraging her freedom in exchange for her help on our mission. Unfortunately we've run into a snag."

Shepard made mock air quotes, "For security reasons," he put them down again, "they're only willing to allow three of us to board. I tried negotiating but their warden made it very clear he was not going to compromise on this point. I've selected you two to come with me."

Garrus interrupted, "Are we expecting trouble, Shepard?" The commander gave him a meaningful look. The Turian answered his own question, "Never mind, I almost forgot; we always expect trouble."

Shepard continued, "Best case scenario, they're just being cautious, and we're in and out in no time. In the event that something is afoot, we need to be ready. I've advised Joker to be prepared for a quick exit, and EDI is working to infiltrate their security as we speak to aid us if necessary. Beyond that, if we want Jack we're going to have to go along with them for now. Any questions?"

Despite their apprehension, neither of them could think of any alternatives, so they indicated their readiness.

"Don combat gear and report to the airlock ASAP, clear?"

They nodded, and split up to grab their equipment. After their ship was cleared to dock the three of them emerged from the airlock into an atrium in the docking bay. A contingent of security guards were waiting to greet them. One spoke up.

"Welcome to Purgatory, Shepard. Your package is being prepped, and you can claim it shortly. As this is a high security vessel, you'll need to relinquish your weapons before we proceed."

Shepard couldn't possibly be thinking of complying. Miranda turned out to be right. Shepard's response was curt, "I'll be keeping my gun."

The situation might have heated up considerably if the warden hadn't chose that moment to make his entrance.

"Everyone stand down. Commander, I'm Warden Kuril, and this is my ship. Your weapons will be returned on the way out. You must realize this is just standard procedure." His bony ass it was. In her worn-out state she was in no mood for his bullshit. Neither was Shepard.

"As a council Spectre my weapon stays with me wherever I go. I don't make exceptions for privately run prisons. So no offense, but if that's an issue, we'll be taking our leave."

The warden seemed to be calculating, gauging their small group. Eventually he made a decision. "Let them proceed. Our facility is more than secure enough to handle three armed guests."

The security guards lowered their weapons. Miranda breathed a silent sigh of relief. So far so good, but they weren't even close to out yet. Kuril gestured for them to follow him.

"We're bringing Jack out of cryo. As soon as the funds clear, you can be on your way. I'm taking you to out-processing for the pickup, Commander."

They moved through a glass corridor, and around them could see dozens, if not hundreds of cells arranged in a grid along the walls of the chambers on either side of them.

"Cellblock Two," the warden explained, "As you can see we keep tight control over the population. Each prisoner's cell is a self-contained modular unit. I've blown a few cells out the airlocks as an example before. The ship is made up of 30 cell blocks identical to this one; we house thousands of criminals." He seemed proud. "We can put the whole place in lockdown on a moment's notice. Nothing goes wrong here."

"Can you tell me about Jack?" Shepard inquired as they walked.

"Cerberus hasn't told you?" the warden asked. There hadn't been much to tell, as far as Miranda could see. The brief said that Jack had crossed paths, violently, with a Cerberus cell in the past, and they had kept tabs on her ever since. Other than the fact that she was a powerful biotic, that was all they had been told. "Jack is the meanest handful of violence and hate I've ever encountered. You'll see soon enough."

After a few moments, the Warden halted. "You're nearly there. Just keep going past the interrogation rooms and the supermax wing. I'll catch up with you later, Shepard."

Alert for the first sign of trouble, the three of them did as they were told and moved past the interrogation chambers, where they saw a guard beating a prisoner, with another watching.

"You don't even get good information that way," Garrus noted, "after a point the victims will admit to anything to make the pain stop."

A verbal rebuke from Shepard caused the guards to let up - for the moment at least - and they continued down the hallway. A door at the end read: "Out-processing" so they went through. Inside they found a single technician who excused himself as they entered, and a single door at the other end of the room. Even in her sleep-deprived state, alarm bells were going off in Miranda's head, and judging by the way the other two were tensing up, they felt that something was wrong as well. With little choice besides just leaving, they made their way to the other end of the room. As they approached the door, it opened to reveal an empty cell. All three drew weapons and spun around as Warden Kuril's voice sounded over the intercom.

"My apologies, Shepard. You're more valuable as a prisoner than a customer. Drop your weapons and proceed into this open cell. You will not be harmed."

None of them had any intention of complying, something the Warden had obviously anticipated, judging by the rapidly encroaching footsteps from outside the room.

"Defensive positions?" Garrus inquired.

Shepard punched up something on his omni-tool. "No," he replied unexpectedly. "We've got a mission and I'll be damned if a greedy jail keeper keeps us from completing it; we're going on the offensive. I've got a little surprise for those guards, be ready."

They didn't have long to wait. Moments later several guards and a few FENRIS mechs burst through the door, ready for a fight, only to be caught in the blast of what Shepard had just launched from his omni-tool. A mass of super-cooled subatomic particles impacted the ground right in the middle of the enemy ranks, exploding outward and snap freezing all the mercs and mechs in an instant. A spray of assault rifle fire from Shepard's Avenger caused the enemy squad to shatter and fall to the ground. Miranda and Garrus were slightly taken aback.

"What was that?" Garrus exclaimed.

"Some experimental tech, courtesy of Mordin." Shepard replied, almost grinning. "I have to admit, I've been itching to try it out. Sadly, carrying more than one charge is impractical, so I won't be doing it again while we're here. Let's get moving."

The warden was issuing orders over the intercom. "Reinforce out-processing. Shepard is loose!"

Still somewhat dazed by the brevity of the encounter, both Garrus and Miranda followed Shepard out of the room past the remains of the security team. They rounded the bend to a control room, and after bypassing the security on the door, burst inside. The room's only occupant was the technician from a few moments ago, who promptly (and wisely) beat feet the second they entered and ran out through a side door. Moving forward, Shepard examined the system controls.

"We haven't got time for finesse. To let Jack out I'm going to have to open all the cells on this block. If nothing else, the chaos should cover our exit."

It was grim, but given the circumstances they didn't really have a choice. Hearing no objections, Shepard engaged a block-wide override. Alarms blared all over the station, and before them the cell keeping Jack in cryo slowly rose from the floor. Steam poured out of the container as the contents quickly thawed out. The contents were revealed to be a slim woman, slightly shorter than Miranda, wearing little more than a belt above her waist. She was completely covered in tattoos, and very ill tempered, a fact that was demonstrated seconds later when security mechs activating in the room attempted to contain her. The biotic display that followed rocked the security room a floor above and all three stumbled. Having dealt with the mechs Jack ignored the door in front of her and instead decided to make her own door. Through the wall. Leading to the next cell block.

"That could be a problem," Shepard observed.

Miranda concurrred, "We need to get down there!"

"Right," Shepard agreed, "Move out!"

After descending a level to the room Jack had been revived in, they were able to clearly see the trail of destruction she had left them to follow. She was powerful, but as Garrus dryly observed, she lacked subtlety. Things in the facility were going from bad to worse. Jack's unorthodox exit strategy meant that now multiple cell blocks were compromised, and from the sounds of gunfire and screaming, the guards were struggling to cope with the hundreds of suddenly rioting prisoners. The chaos around them meant that while tracking Jack through the station they met with little resistance. They did have to fend off the occasional gaggle of prisoners, or lone guard, but for the most part they made it to the docking bay unmolested.

As they entered the docking bay, they were just in time to see Jack demolish two guards with her biotics before staring out the bay window at the Normandy. Her reaction was furious, and in her rage she failed to notice a third guard rounding the bend at the end of the corridor, but a burst of fire from Shepard put him down before he could draw a bead on her. That got Jack's attention.

"What the hell do you want?" She demanded, fists clenched and glowing blue.

Miranda wasn't unduly worried about her hostile attitude. Shepard had coerced a charging Krogan into joining their ranks only a day ago. He'd pull out his trademark charm and calm this girl down. She'd be on the ship in no time.

"Some gratitude would be nice, I just saved your ass." Or not…

"You mean that clown?" She gestured at the corpse of the guard. "He was already dead. He just didn't know it yet. You didn't answer my question by the way."

Shepard got straight to the point. "I'm putting together a team for a dangerous mission. I came here to recruit you."

"You're Cerberus aren't you? Fuck off." Just how bad was that "crossing of paths" that the brief had described?

"No, I'm not. Commander Shepard, at your service. I'm offering to be your friend, you don't want to be my enemy."

"They have a tendency of ending up dead," noted Garrus.

"You show up here in a Cerberus ship to take me away somewhere; do you think I'm stupid?"

Shepard's reply was more caustic than Miranda was used to, despite it being more or less exactly what she was thinking. "This ship is going down in flames. I've got the only way off it. I'm offering to take you with me, and you're arguing."

Jack was forced to concede, but she wasn't going to make it easy. "Look, you want me to come with you, you'd better make it worth my while."

"Tell me what you're thinking."

"I'll bet your ship's got lots of Cerberus databases. I want to look at those files, see what Cerberus has on me. Want me on your team? Let me go through those databases."

Shepard immediately agreed, which irked Miranda more than a little. "You'll have your access."

She felt she needed to say something, "Shepard, you're not authorized to do that!"

Jack grinned impishly, "Oh, it upsets the cheerleader, even better. You'd better be straight up with me." _Cheerleader?_ Who did this bitch think she was?

With a reprimanding look at Miranda, Shepard replied, "You've got my word."

"Then what the hell are we standing here for?" Jack inquired aggressively, walking towards the airlock. The rest of the squad followed, but Miranda was still steaming.

* * *

Much to Miranda's annoyance, Jack insisted on pressing the issue of access to Cerberus' classified databases the moment they entered the ship. Miranda herself hadn't even had access to those files when preparing to recruit Jack; was Shepard really going to make good on his promise? Never mind, this was Shepard, of course he was, but she wasn't going to let her objections remain a secret. The moment Jack left the briefing room to find a hidey hole somewhere on the lower decks, Miranda confronted him.

"Must you insist on undermining me at every opportunity, _Commander_?" she asked, with a bit more venom in her voice than perhaps she had intended. Normally she would have been more diplomatic, but her patience was fraying due to exhaustion.

"If you're referring to allowing Jack access to Cerberus files, I fail to see the issue with permitting her to look up data pertaining to _herself_. I fully expect you'll take precautions preventing her from compromising the rest of your network. We need her on our side. Giving her what she wants is the best way to do that. Unless you had a better plan."

Sedating her and locking her in crate came to mind, but she knew Shepard wouldn't go for it. Besides, they had been the ones to recommend her recruitment in the first place. Damn it, Shepard was all the more infuriating when he was right. However, Miranda was in no mood to have her concerns pushed aside so lightly. She was just having trouble at the moment finding a reason for her annoyance.

"I know you don't care about Cerberus, but I'm responsible for what happens on this ship, and Cerberus is my life. I will not have you compromising it." Miranda wasn't quite sure what she was trying to do, but she couldn't seem to stop herself from venting. Shepard bore her vitriol with impressive stoicism. "Jack will get her files because that's what needs to happen, but from now on, you will not make decisions like that without consulting me, do I make myself clear?"

Realizing she had made a comment that demanded a response from the commander, Miranda suddenly experienced a burst of panic. Shepard was in command, and the Illusive Man had made it clear he was to stay that way, at least for the duration of their mission. If she did anything to upset their working dynamic, one or both of them might decide she needed to be replaced. It wasn't worth it for a simple power play that was merely coming about as a result of fatigue induced frustration. She immediately tried to mitigate the damage.

"I'm sorry, Commander. It's just… I just…" Miranda was struggling to find an adequate apology when Shepard interrupted.

"Are you ok, Miranda?"

"I… what?"

"You look terrible, are you alright?" he repeated.

Miranda stared at him blankly for a moment. Was he giving her a way out? "I'm fine, Shepard. Just… tired. If it's all right with you, we can resume this conversation later." She tried to turn and leave before she could do any more harm.

"Miranda, wait." Shepard seemed to gather his thoughts. "You brought me back to stop the Collectors. I'm doing that the best way I know how. I may not always agree with you, but don't think for a moment that I don't value your opinion. And I'm not just saying that to sound like an HR exec."

Miranda wasn't in the mood to laugh, but the terrible joke did serve to relieve some of the tension that had built up so unexpectedly.

"Just remember this isn't a competition, we're all here for the same reason. For what it's worth, I'm actually glad the Illusive Man put you on my team." Shepard walked past her as she stood, silent. "Try to get some sleep, we've still got a lot of work to do."

"Yes, Commander," Miranda managed before Shepard left the room. She leant back against the conference table. It seemed her mistake hadn't cost her as much as she feared. And based on his comments, presuming they weren't merely to console her, his temperament towards her was not as negative as she had imagined. Perhaps her directive to win over the commander could be salvaged, but she would need to play her cards very carefully, a feat which would require rest. She wearily picked herself up and marched slowly to the elevator and from there to the solitude of her cabin.

She slumped in front of her terminal, exhausted but determined to at least send off a preliminary mission summary before calling it a night. She was so tired it took her a moment to recognize that something was different about her screen when she booted it up. Her background was normally a looped vid of the ocean in front of the Sydney Opera House in Australia back on Earth. It had been changed to a loop of the Alliance Flag waving in front of a base in a city she didn't recognize. More important was the text superimposed over the image. It read: Your Move, Operative Lawson.

Shepard…

* * *

**Author Notes:**

Ok, before I go into a few background details regarding this chapter I wanted to get some feedback from people regarding the direction I'll be taking in future chapters (and have no fear, this isn't one of those stupid "give me reviews or I stop writing" things, I'm going to continue regardless). I already have an outline for exactly what I want to do with Shepard and Miranda all the way past the ending of ME3, but I'm a lot sketchier on how much of the other characters and stories I'll be including. So my question is do people want more detailed accounts of important missions like in this chapter (obviously I won't write up every single side quest and conversation), or summarized versions of the non-miranda-shepard-essential missions (similar to the first part of "Omega and Omission" but not necessarily in the same style)? Basically, how much do people care about the fluff? I'm willing to write the missions in detail, but I don't want to be doing that if no one is interested. So let me know what you guys would prefer (feel free to pm me if you don't want to post a review). Either way, I'll post the next chapter in about a week or so (hopefully).

Moving on… has anyone noticed how often the Blue Suns were used in Mass Effect 2? I'm getting kind of bored typing "merc", "mercenary", "Blue Suns", and variations thereof. I decided to change the crew of Purgatory to generic guards because I thought it would feel too contrived for Shepard to be stupid enough to land on a Blue Suns controlled prison ship when they've basically been in open war with them for most of the game/story. That would have been pretty derpy.

For those wondering why Shepard didn't kill Warden Kuril as he did in the game. The answer is that boss fight always felt pretty arbitrary to me. Shepard was supposed to be getting Jack, so why would he go pick a fight with the Warden, who was clearly plenty occupied with the other goings on in the station. If it were me, I would have just gone after Jack, because if she was killed or escaped this would have been another mission to end badly. Shepard isn't about to have two of those in a row.

As I mentioned in a previous chapter, I don't like writing every single fight, and try to preserve the action for important moments, otherwise it risks becoming stale. Admittedly, repeatedly describing variations of "they moved forward and fought through some mooks" gets old as well, but at least it's less time consuming, for both me and the reader. This is one argument for more summarization of non-essential missions, because it prevents this sort of thing. I'm pretty sure everyone reading this knows that Shepard and Co. fight through a lot of mooks, and they usually win pretty handily. That's just not the interesting part of the story. But that's just my opinion I guess.

Lastly, I know, in the game Cryo Blast doesn't work through shields, which some of the guards had. But the fact is, that was a segregation of story and gameplay (kinetic shields only block, well, kinetic attacks, and even then only those of high velocity, which is what prevents them from not being able to sit down and whatnot) that was there purely to balance the power. I balanced it by limiting its usage. Much more lore friendly, and it means that a cool power (no pun intended) gets to be as cool as it should have been in the game.

Lastly (again), sorry Grunt didn't get much screen time, but this chapter was getting lengthy as it was. Also (I promise this is actually the last thing), if people have wondered why Mordin isn't going on missions, it's because he's working on the countermeasure for the seeker swarms, of course! Duh.

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading. Come back for the next chapter (I promise the wait will be much shorter).


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